From the declassified summary of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s “Inquiry Into the Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody” —
The abuse of detainees in U.S. custody cannot simply be attributed to the actions of “a few bad apples” acting on their own. The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees. Those efforts damaged our ability to collect accurate intelligence that could save lives, strengthened the hand of our enemies, and compromised our moral authority.
Someone remind me again why war crimes trials are a non-starter. And if so, why the Bush-Cheney gang can’t just be prosecuted for fraud, or for treason. Can’t we just sue John Yoo and Jay Bybee for malpractice and have them disbarred? Is that too much to ask?