Guess What? It IS Torture! Even the Red Cross Thinks So.

Well, here is a stunning surprise. The New York Times today reports the publication (next week) of a new book by Jane Mayer, a writer at The New Yorker. In the book Mayer reveals the existence of a secret report, prepared by the International Committee of the Red Cross, on the interrogation practices the U.S. has been using. The report is unequivocal ~ the interrogations are "categorically" torture, and those officials who have sanctioned them are liable to war crimes prosecution. The ICRC hardly is a radical outfit. Nor is it political, as witnessed by the way it assiduously tried to keep this report confidential. (Its spokesmen still decline to discuss the report with the press.)

Memo to ICRC: see how well private conversations and behind the scenes pressure work when the perpetrators are truly venal ideologues?

As I've noted here before, in its current incarnation (this is not the first) torture policy in the U.S. goes all the way to the top. Maybe now The Times and other outlets - to say nothing of the government - will stop with the euphemisms and double talk. It is, of course, too much to ask of the Democrats that they initiate legal proceedings against BushCo members past and present. who have occupied positions in the chain cruel and inhumane punishment. Maybe now the Democrats will get some spine and stop giving BushCo everything they ask for (Like the FISA amendments!). Unfortunately those things are all unlikely. We are going to have to wait until some foreign government or transnational entity initiates the war crimes tribunals. [Thanks Jörg!]