----- Original Message ----- From: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu>
It's an important story, and it comes out only because of bureaucratic infighting in the USG. It places blame for the Abu Ghraib torture where it belongs, on Rumsfeld and Cambone, and their secret, illegal military operation.
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Except it's not illegal. A legally authorized illegality is an oxymoron. Now if we want to discuss the will to power involved in the formation of law as a mode of discourse............
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15981-2004May10.html Secret World of U.S. Interrogation Long History of Tactics in Overseas Prisons Is Coming to Light By Dana Priest and Joe Stephens Washington Post Staff Writers Tuesday, May 11, 2004; Page A01
<snip> None of the arrangements that permit U.S. personnel to kidnap, transport, interrogate and hold foreigners are ad hoc or unauthorized, including the so-called renditions. "People tend to regard it as an extra-judicial kidnapping; it's not," former CIA officer Peter Probst said. "There is a long history of this. It has been done for decades. It's absolutely legal."
In fact, every aspect of this new universe -- including maintenance of covert airlines to fly prisoners from place to place, interrogation rules and the legal justification for holding foreigners without due process afforded most U.S. citizens -- has been developed by military or CIA lawyers, vetted by Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and, depending on the particular issue, approved by White House General Counsel's Office or the president himself.
In some cases, such as determining whether a U.S. citizen should be designated an enemy combatant who can be held without charges, the president makes the final decision, said Alberto R. Gonzales, counsel to the president, in a Feb. 24 speech to the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Law and National Security. <snip>