http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/radio/2009/04/16/aclu/index.htmlObama did the right thing by releasing these memos, providing all the information and impetus the citizenry should need to demand investigations and prosecutions. But it is up to citizens to demand that the rule of law be applied.----------------
UPDATE II: The ACLU has all four memos here. This 46-page May 10, 2005 memo (.pdf) from OLC Chief Steven Bradbury authorizes (under Constitutional and international law) all of these tactics for any "high-value detainees": nudity, "dietary manipulation" involving "minimum caloric intake at commerical weight-loss programs," "corrective techniques" (facial and abdominal slapping), water dousing, "walling," stress positions and "wall standing" (to "induce muscle fatigue and the attendent discomfort"), cramped confinement, and sleep deprivation. It also authorized "no more than two sessions" of waterboarding in "any 24-hour period."
Bradbury here discusses (and, of course, approves) of the specific methods used to have a detainee undergoing sleep deprivation wear a diaper:
Bradbury legalized all of these methods despite this amazing ackonwledgment; if you read just one memo excerpt, read this one:
They explicitly recognized that the techniques they were authorizing were ones that we condemned other countries for using -- including as "torture" -- but nonetheless approved them, explicitly saying that the standards we impose on others do not bind us in any way:
Finally, given all the talk about how it would be so unfair to prosecute Bush officials given that they believed what they were doing was legal, Bradbury made clear in the last paragraph of the memo just how dubious was his conclusion that all of these techniques were legal:
The more one reads of this, the harder it is to credit Obama's statement today that "this is a time for reflection, not retribution." At least when it comes to the orders of our highest government leaders and the DOJ lawyers who authorized them, these are pure war crimes, justified in the most disgustingly clinical language and with clear intent of wrongdoing. FDL has a petition urging Eric Holder to immediately appoint a Special Prosecutor to determine if criminal proceedings should commence.
http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/Prosecutor Obama did the right thing by releasing these memos, providing all the information and impetus the citizenry should need to demand investigations and prosecutions. But it is up to citizens to demand that the rule of law be applied.http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/radio/2009/04/16/aclu/index.html