Another Torture Memo Released

Apropos to my recent post on torture, the newest torture memo was just released publicly yesterday. The Washington Post reports:

“The Justice Department sent a legal memorandum to the Pentagon in 2003 asserting that federal laws prohibiting assault, maiming and other crimes did not apply to military interrogators who questioned al-Qaeda captives because the president’s ultimate authority as commander in chief overrode such statutes.”

Most unsettling is the fact that when the administration went to Congress for increased powers on such matters as interrogations, and couldn’t get the total dictatorial authority it sought, it merely resorted to memos from its own Justice Department, which carry the force of legislation.

P.S.: For a decent little video piece on “advanced interrogation techniques,” go see Chapter 11 of Part 1 of the new PBS Frontline documentary, Bush’s War.