Although I agree with most of the sentiment about the abuses of power and violations of international agreements relating to torture, I also believe that there needs to be more focus on the inception of the covert policy. By the time CheneyOilCo got their meaty little hands around "extraordinary rendition", escalated and expanded the practice, the CIA had been practicing torture by proxy for 5 years. Presidential directive "PDD 39" was devised and signed by Bill Clinton in 1995... allowing circumvention of the US ratified United Nations Convention Against Torture.

As Senator Hillary Clinton so vocally and "convincingly" assures the American electorate that those same years are the basis of her vast and superior "experience", I would have to assume that she was also involved with the decision. It might behoove an enterprising reporter/blogger to ask the Clinton Campaign about her current position on snatch and torture flights... rendition to foreign countries (or US bases on foreign soil) for "interrogation" and elimination of any semblance of due process... and ask if she supported the decision in 1995.

alienated in Seattle

The press is Public Enemy Numero Uno, guilty of treason. Television has ONE honest old-time journalist (Olbermann) and it is meaningless to have just one--it causes the "one" to be looked upon as nothing but an "answer" to the well-paid propagandists at Faux News, a guy merely giving his opinions. (And then Olbermann is forced to feed us Britney news, and American Idol, for "good measure," so we don't "mistake" him for a real journalist.)

The public as a whole isn't reading NEWSWEEK from cover to cover, so television IS the cuplrit here. And their response is that we should be getting our news from a VARIETY of sources. Well, people don't do that. They get it from TV. Some not even that. The talking heads on TV have the ball, it is ALL riding on them, and they (especially CNN, with their Cheney-agreeing scud stud Michael Ware and all the rest), are international corporate tools, working for our enemy, knowingly and willingly killing us.

Our "enemy is not "in iraq"! He's right in front of you.

(Hi, Tweety! *wave* Thanks for being so fair toward the Republican viewpoint on your show! Even though they are the extreme minority, already getting their way in everything, while the rest of us LIVE with their dictates, thaaaanks! You sage, salty, fasinating American journalistic figure yoooo...! Read my finger Chris. And stop spitting on me when you talk.)

This will probably the reason that the Bush Administration needs to call Marshall Law.

From his radical stance on abortion to his prominence in the corruption scandals that has been virtually ignored by the mainstream media, Barack Obama is not fit to be Senator -- not to mention the next President of the United States.
Obama has declared his presidential intentions, but it is up to well-informed and energetic conservatives like you to spare our nation from the scourge of a far-left President Barack H. Obama.

i'm pretty certain bushco
has already effectively nuetered the hague
with the recent ruling about mexico
from the supreme court.

it was trotted out as about
mexicans in u.s.
and their rights against the death penalty,
but all thinking sorts knew it to be
a pre-emtive strike against future war crimes tribunals.
the u.s. could disregard the hague -
it was on the books.

justice is blind in america,
but now it is mute as well.

johnny got his gun.

I wish- but it ain't gunna happen
This is sullivan's biggest blunder since he postulated that conservatives had souls

The argument that other officials have committed war crimes and so therefore it is ok or not worse that current officials are committing them is just soooo wrong.

Mother Jones has a handy chain of command guide for the coming War Crime Tribunals.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/03/abu-ghraib-chain-of-command.html

I am very, very slowly gaining some respect for Sullivan. He's not there yet but he seems to be gradually waking up. Of course, he'll have a lot to make up for when he does come around but if he's willing to try, I'm willing to give him a chance.

Oh, in case that was a little too sarcastic, I am calling you a bunch of tools for thinking that anybody was outed in the first place. Covert agents do not have their spouses write about CIA sponsored missions in the damn paper. I'm pretty sure that rule number one of being a covert agent is "don't have your spouse write about his/her secret missions in the Washington Post" or something similar to that.

How nice that Andrew Sullivan is just starting to see the corruption and criminality we've all been talking about since, oh, 2000. Because before now, Sullivan actually supported these a-holes and their policies to invade Iraq. Too little, too late Andrew.

I really hope it happens. I'm not optimistic but hopeful. Why, my hope is almost audacious.

The lack of intellectual discipline on display here is astonishing. When did wishing make anything so??? Shit, I'm still waiting for Kissinger to be put on trial. Use your head.