In December 2004, Bush’s Justice Department issued a statement insisting that “torture is abhorrent.” It was an encouraging step from administration officials who were willing to concede that there were limits to presidential authority when it came to brutal interrogations.
But it was a lie — shortly thereafter, then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales signed off on a secret legal opinion, which, as the New York Times reported today, endorsed “the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.”
The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.
Mr. Gonzales approved the legal memorandum on “combined effects” over the objections of James B. Comey, the deputy attorney general, who was leaving his job after bruising clashes with the White House. Disagreeing with what he viewed as the opinion’s overreaching legal reasoning, Mr. Comey told colleagues at the department that they would all be “ashamed” when the world eventually learned of it.
And here we are. Given their conduct and contempt for the rule of law, administration officials are apparently well beyond the capacity for shame, but if they’re capable of embarrassment, now would be a good time for it. Indeed, now might be an equally good time to wonder whether criminal charges should be brought against several high-ranking officials in the Bush administration.
Worse, this wasn’t the only secret memo Gonzales signed on torture policies.
Later that year, as Congress moved toward outlawing “cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment, the Justice Department issued another secret opinion, one most lawmakers did not know existed, current and former officials said. The Justice Department document declared that none of the C.I.A. interrogation methods violated that standard.
In other words, as lawmakers in the co-equal branch of government were shaping a policy on the treatment of detainees, Gonzales & Co. agreed that Congress’ standards would be irrelevant — CIA interrogation tactics would not change.
In case there was any doubt, Gonzales wasn’t nearly clever enough to take all of these steps on his own. Dick Cheney was calling the shots, and Gonzales simply did what he was told to do.
Associates at the Justice Department said Mr. Gonzales seldom resisted pressure from Vice President Dick Cheney and David S. Addington, Mr. Cheney’s counsel, to endorse policies that they saw as effective in safeguarding Americans, even though the practices brought the condemnation of other governments, human rights groups and Democrats in Congress. Critics say Mr. Gonzales turned his agency into an arm of the Bush White House, undermining the department’s independence.
Josh Marshall noted that “there’s still much we are yet to learn about how far the Gonzales Justice Department took us into the darkness of state-sponsored torture and lawlessness.” That’s true. But the more we do learn, the more we realize that we’re dealing with officials who know no limits and feel no shame. They are, quite literally, a disgrace. Scrubbing the stain of ignominy will be a weighty challenge for Bush’s successor; I only hope it’s not too late to salvage the nation’s dignity.
As for other reactions, Kevin Drum wants to know who in Congress knew about all of this; Digby makes the case that stories like this one are “the very definition of the banality of evil — a bunch of ideologues and bureaucrats blithely committing morally reprehensible acts apparently without conscience or regret”; and Hilzoy argues that the administration’s tactics are “not just morally abhorrent; they are flatly illegal.”
I know it’s difficult to muster a new degree of outrage every time the Bush gang sinks to a new low, but today’s revelations highlight American lawlessness at the highest levels of our government. History will not be kind.