Never In My Name

I don't want to comment too much on the Torture Memos as I haven't yet read them , except to point out that Glenn Greenwald has the takeaway here:

They explicitly recognized that the techniques they were authorizing were ones that we condemned other countries for using -- including as "torture" -- but nonetheless approved them, explicitly saying that the standards we impose on others do not bind us in any way

So when someone is aware that the act that they are facilitating is a crime, yet they continue to facilitate it, what possible affirmative defense could they have? 9/11 made torture legal?

Senator Leahy is right: at minimum there should be a truth commission. I would even be willing to let those who did so under orders off, provided the intellectual authors of these acts face justice.

While the Obama administration has said that they have no plans to prosecute CIA agents involved in the torture, they have no say about possible civil actions, some of which could be initiated under the Torture Victim's Protection Act (TVPA).

The TVPA was signed into law by George H. W. Bush.