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Alicia Shepard's double-standard on the use of the word "torture" - techniques are "torture" when bad guys do it, but not when us good guys do it - comes straight out of one of the Bush OLC's torture memos. The memo is by Steven Bradbury of May 30, 2005, on whether the CIA interrogation techniques violate the substantive standards for cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. (Surprise! Bradbury's answer is no.) Bradbury points out the awkward fact that the State Department's annual Country Report on human rights elsewhere "condemns coercive interrogation techniques. Certain of the techniques the United States has condemned appear to bear some resemblance to some of the CIA interrogation techniques." Bradbury's rejoinder? Exactly the same as Alicia Shepard's. "The condemned conduct...is often undertaken for reasons totally unlike the CIA's....There is no indication that techniques are used only as necessary to protect against grave terrorist threats or for any similarly vital government interests (or indeed for any legitimate government interest)....In these essential respects, it differs from the conduct condemned by the State Department reports." (pp. 36-37). The memo is available at http://luxmedia.vo.llnwd.net/o10/clients/aclu/olc_05302005_bradbury.pdf.
