This looks to be pretty big news. A previously secret memo on torture under the Bush administration has just been released.
CNN article
The Bush administration told the CIA in 2002 that its interrogators working abroad would not violate U.S. prohibitions against torture unless they "have the specific intent to inflict severe pain or suffering," according to a previously secret Justice Department memo released Thursday.
The interrogator's "good faith" and "honest belief" that the interrogation will not cause such suffering protects the interrogator, the memo adds.
"Because specific intent is an element of the offense, the absence of specific intent negates the charge of torture," Jay Bybee, then the assistant attorney general, wrote in the memo.
So there you have it. If the interrogator didn't mean to torture the suspect, it wasn't torture! Brilliant logic from the Bush administration yet again!
Update: See diranuk's comment that "specific intent" is not the issue, as the U.N. torture convention accepts it, but what techniques were used. My excuse is that IANAL.
Of course, even with the release, most of the memo was still redacted. 10 of the 18 released pages were completely blacked out, and the other 8 pages still had substantial chunks blacked out as well.
"These documents supply further evidence, if any were needed, that the Justice Department authorized the CIA to torture prisoners in its custody," said Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU National Security Project.
Jaffer, BTW, was on last Saturday's Netroots Nation panel about Gitmo, torture, and accountability in the First 100 Days after Bush leaves office. Amazing panel with Jeremy Scahill and Dahlia Lithwick and Vince Warren. If you weren't there to see it like me and occams hatchet were, WATCH IT once they put up the archived video on NetrootsNation.org, or YouTube, or wherever it winds up.
So with this new information, watch the wingers go into two arguments. One will still be complete denial that any torture happened. The others will say that torture is actually "necessary to the security of a free state", cuz, you know, "9/11 changed everything".
Also, last night, Jon Stewart took a whack at the coverups by those in the DOJ and the Bush administration about torture, interrogation, and a whole host of other issues.
Also see MLDB's earlier diary on the ACLU posting the memos and summarizing them on their website.