ABC "News" Reports the News

It is shocking when news media actually publish something revelatory or critical about an administration. So it is nice to see that ABC "News" decided to step out of its "entertainment" role and provide a bit of real news. Now the American people can know that when Bush says that his government "doesn't torture people", they now can know that the facts are otherwise. Right at the very top the Bush admin decided just when and how much torture to apply. (The joke is that these choreographed prescriptions of "modest torture" are translated down the chain of command into more and more brutal orders, a typical transformation from the dainty elite to the boots in the mud grunts who face life-and-death on a battlefield.)

Highly placed sources said a handful of top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects -- whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding.

The high-level discussions about these "enhanced interrogation techniques" were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed -- down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic.

The advisers were members of the National Security Council's Principals Committee, a select group of senior officials who met frequently to advise President Bush on issues of national security policy.

At the time, the Principals Committee included Vice President Cheney, former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft.