A brilliant debut here, Marcy! Congratulations on the new gig here and for the Hillman award.

Thank you for turning up the heat and keeping track of the complexities. I hope this piece is quoted in tomorrow's WaPo and NYT.

NO. This is NOT the 300 Spartans.

Nancy Pelosi appears nowhere on this list.

So, can we please investigate these baker's dozen first?

Marcy, thank you so much for this overview of the principals. If just these thirteen were put on trial, we'd cut the heart out of the torture "debate" and regain much standing with the rest of the world. Please keep researching and writing!!!

That would be an unlikely and amazing first step.

But unfortunately that first step is being hindered by fear of the second step. And that second step would be prosecuting the enablers, accessories after the fact, and those who put enforcement of the law "off-the-table."

And for these reasons, Nancy and Obama are shooting their way up the list. Probably not in the top 20 yet, but climbing fast.

They tortured to punish, to obtain confessions and to obtain false information: it was a program of institutional sadism spread all over the world from the USA to Irak - including allied countries such as Poland, Egypt and Romania - I suspect a fundamentalist Protestant crusade to show Islam who is boss.

How dare you pay attention to the root of the matter? Why can't you be like the TradMed and swallow uncritically everything the CIA or the GOP says?

"When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal".

And the rest, as they say, is, er, "we're living in the future, none of this has happened yet".

Why?

We could always 'extraordinarily render' them to Morocco...

american presidents have been authorizing crimes since 1776.

dubya's only point of difference is that he was casual about admitting it. he is not unique. by now, even some obamaphiles have come to understand that bho intends to continue secret trials, rendition, torture, bombing of civilians, and turning a blind eye.

the major difference so far is a more polished denial of crime.

the crime is inherent in the system. if you want a better result, you must make a better system. democracy is the place to start, but complaining about crimes without further action is the politics of hypocrisy. most complaining is done to earn a living, not as a feature of citizenship.

it was many more than 13, folks. the entire electorate of america was willing to put the american war machine, the secret police, and venal jurists in the service of the elite. that elite makes war not in defense of the nation, but for simple personal gain.

kindly quit demonizing the hyenas you put in charge of the nation. the guilt is closer to home.

They were in on the meetings, they knew about it, they authorized it.

It's time for the left to stop protecting these torture-enablers and expose them for who they are, and get them out of office. They are no friends of real Democrats or liberals.

Leave it to the "alternative" media to do the work which should have been done by our traditional media. And they wonder why they have become irrelevant. Outside of a few good reporters and a few good columnists, traditional media has failed to present us with the truth.

Salon is my MSM and your are one of my favorite analysts.

It's the system.

http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2009/5/15/125153/839/428#c428

First, they based the enhanced interrogation techniques on techniques used in the U.S. military's Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) program. The program -- which subjects volunteers from the armed services to simulated hostile capture situations -- trains servicemen and -women to withstand coercion well enough to avoid making false confessions if captured. Two retired SERE psychologists contracted with the government to "reverse-engineer" these techniques to use in detainee interrogations.

You Gotta Have A Gimmick - from "Gypsy"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFRSawe33sA

"yoou got, to get a gimic, if you want to get ahead"

a.(Multiple sources conclude that Iraq is not in league with Al Queda and does not possess weapons of mass destruction.)

http://www.historycommons.org/index.jsp

b.http://www.pointsoflight.org/about/mediacenter/releases/2007/03-20.cfm

Former President Bush to Address National Conference on Volunteering & Service

Alma Powell, co-founder of America’s Promise, also to speak at Philadelphia conference

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 20, 2007) — Former President George H.W. Bush will be the featured speaker at the 2007 National Conference on Volunteering & Service, scheduled for July 16-18, 2007 in Philadelphia. Also speaking will be Alma Powell, who founded America’s Promise — The Alliance for Youth, along with her husband, General Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret.), in 1997.

The conference, which will be held at the Philadelphia Convention Center, is the premiere training and education event in volunteer management, community volunteering and national service leadership for nonprofit organizations, business, government agencies and Volunteer Centers. Registration information will be available at www.nationalservice.org by the end of March.

c.http://web.archive.org/web/20020204161501/http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-011002carlyle.story

"Arms Buildup Enriches Firm Staffed by Big Guns"

..including one of United Defense's cornerstone weapon programs.

d.http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2002/jun/16/features.magazine57

Dark heart of the American dreamIt's the most polluted state in the planet's most powerful country. Ed Vulliamy goes into George Bush's backyard to reveal how big oil got in bed with big politics and the price paid by the little people

f.http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-17331251_ITM

The rest had been "captured" by governments cooperating with the Bush administration or by bounty hunters seeking cash rewards for turning in suspected terrorists.

It should hardly be surprising that many of those captured turned out to be innocent.

Finally, the ringleaders exposed. I agree, the MSM are out to lunch, too busy reading their own press clippings. The White House Press Corps just doesn't have the same insightful questions since Jeff Gannon stopped attending.

I would like to know more about Gonzalez's days at the Air Force Academy and his participation in the 'mock' torture sessions. It has been rumored that he got a little 'carried away' with some of the methods.

Oh, and Reid and Pelosi were with Sen Bob Graham, being told just enough by those responsible to get them involved without know the whole story.

Sort of like the way the war was pushed on us.