Via ThinkProgress, we now learn two new things. Not only did high-level Bush administration members meet to go over interrogation details with the knowledge and approval of the President. Some got to go watch.
There was an extraordinary meeting held in September 2002, just before the techniques were to go up the chain of command, so to speak. [Gonzales, Addington, and Haynes] descended on Guantanamo, met with the combatant commander there Mike Dunlavey, watched some interrogations, and as I was told by Dunlavey and by his lawyer Diane Beaver, basically sent out the signal ‘do whatever needs to be done.’
And the other bit...torture probably happened before and after the Yoo memos.
The quote is from Phillipe Sands, Professor of Law at University College London, and is part of a new book entitled "Torture Team", due out next month. You can find details here. You can also get a taste of his writing in an article in next months Vanity Fair, entitled "The Green Light".
Scott Horton has also picked this up in a story for The LA Times where we learn that torture may have been going on before the Yoo/Bybee memos. We knew from the ABC News piece (which the AP mysteriously left out of their rewrite) that Sec. Rice authorized torture after the memos had been rescinded. That is probably why the MCA grants immunity from Sep 11, 2001 to Dec 30, 2005.
Lastly, we also find out at the ThinkProgress story that Rumsfeld kept his commanders out of the loop entirely.
We now also have a situation where all the evidence is mysteriously disappearing - just like the White House emails. Man, the digital dust bin at the RNC must be hella big!
In the end, everyone from Sands to Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, agrees. At some point, the folks involved will not be able to leave the US for fear of an international criminal court. And Sands should know as he was involved in the case with one General Pinochet.