Bush Authorized The Torture

The White House memos released in the last couple of weeks makes it clear that the torture practiced by CIA and military personnel during the time of the Bush administration, was authorized by high-ranking members of the administration including Cheney, Rice, Gonzales and Ashcroft. The only question left was whether Bush had authorized these underlings to pursue the torture policy.

In a speech last weekend, Condoleeza Rice may have answered that question for us. Here is what she said, "He (Bush) was also very clear that we would do nothing -- nothing -- that was against the law or against our obligations internationally."

Rice then went on to say, "I hope people understand that it was a struggle, it was a difficult time. We were all terrified of another attack on this country because September 11 was the worst day of my life in government -- watching 3,000 Americans die because these people attacked us. Even under those most difficult circumstances, the president was not prepared to do something illegal."

That means that either Rice and her cohorts explicitly disobeyed an order from the president, ot the president authorized the use of torture. Now there is no way that Condi Rice would have disobeyed the president. She was the consummate yes-man -- a true believer in Bush. She would never have done anything she thought Bush would not approve of.

Now we do know that Bush got some Justice Department lawyers, like John Yoo, to misread and twist the law to make it seem like the torture procedures used were legal. They were not. A majority of Americans, along with most of the rest of the world, believes the waterboarding and other procedures used were clearly torture.

Condi Rice may think that getting a lawyer to say black is white makes it true, but it doesn't. Torture is torture, regardless of what the attorneys in the Bush administration said. But thanks to Rice, now we know something else.

George Bush authorized the use of torture. He should be punished.