UPDATE: Torture this, torture that

A couple items on the torture front today.

  -  The first is the news the Spanish Attorney General today overruled Spanish prosecutors from filing criminal charges against six Bush Administration officials accused of sanctioning the use of torture.  Attorney General Candido Conde Pumpido said any torture investigation should be focused on those who administered torture, rejected the notion of holding lawyers responsible for the torture, and appropriately noted that if any court is going to pursue criminal charges it should be American courts.

Scott Horton notes that Judge Garzon retains control of the case, but it's likely the Spanish courts will abandon any criminal investigation. 

   -  The New York Times is reporting the Obama Administration, after some serious debate and infighting within the Administration, will release the heretofore three secret Bush Administration memos on approved torture methods.

Among the anticipated documents are detailed 2005 memos by Stephen G. Bradbury, who as acting head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel authorized the C.I.A. techniques. The documents have never before been made public, but an article in The New York Times in October 2007 said that the memos gave legal support for using a combination of coercive techniques at the same time and concluded that the C.I.A.’s methods were not “cruel, inhuman or degrading” under international law.

Another document expected to be released this afternoon is a Justice Department memo written August 1, 2002. The memo, written by John C. Yoo and signed by Jay S. Bybee, two Justice Department officials at the time, is a legal authorization for a laundry list of proposed C.I.A. interrogation techniques.

Brace yourself.

UPDATE:

The Obama Administration this afternoon released four Bush Administration memos, largely unredacted, detailing it's implementation of torture and announced it will not seek criminal charges against CIA operatives that had conducted that torture.

The details on torture methods apparently mirrors the recent International Red Cross report, including reports of sleep deprivation, starving, beatings and forced positions.

The documents are here.

Comments

[bee]

You can't fool me, Barry. It's overtly apparent now that you are the same as all of them. But then, this suspicion has been with me for well over 6 months.

Obama: The MAJOR political disappointment of my life. At least Kennedy tried to change things. . .

[Happy Indep]

Oh well Jay. Seems that Obama and the AG of Spain have come to their senses. No third world judicial fiats from these two cooler heads.

Good move President. Good move. This would have put a major damper on the CIA and others from keeping America safe not just from terrorists but from our very own government extremists.

Were they included in the DHS report?

[Jay McDonough]

It may have been pragmatic to absolve CIA operatives from prosecution (though the "I was just following orders" defense wasn't allowed at Nuremberg). The ones who authorized torture are the more guilty.