ThinkProgress: Bush Admits To Personally Authorising Torture Of KSM

[FourScore]

In an interview with Brit Hume that aired today on Fox News Sunday, President Bush admitted that he personally authorized the torture of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. He said he personally asked “what tools” were available to use on him, and sought legal approval for waterboarding him:

BUSH: One such person who gave us information was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. … And I’m in the Oval Office and I am told that we have captured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the professionals believe he has information necessary to secure the country. So I ask what tools are available for us to find information from him and they gave me a list of tools, and I said are these tools deemed to be legal? And so we got legal opinions before any decision was made.

Watch it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghMeeXxYbho&eurl=http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/11/bush-authorized-torture/

Bush staunchly defended the program, saying it saved American lives — despite interrogators’ claims to the contrary. He waved away the debate over torture by saying dismissively, “Look, I understand why people can get carried away on this issue.”

Last year, Bush admitted that he was “aware” that his national security team met to discuss KSM’s interrogation, and that he approved of the meeting. His admission today suggests Bush had a far more direct role in developing the specific torture program, which included waterboarding, a freezing cell, and long periods of standing and stress positions (all of which have long been considered torture).

What’s more, a former Pentagon intelligence analyst told Vanity Fair that “K.S.M. produced no actionable intelligence“; another former CIA official, who read all the reports from KSM’s interrogation, said, “90 percent of it was total f*cking bullsh*t.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/11/bush-authorized-torture/

[kentuck]

1. KSM wasn't the only one tortured...

Bet on it. Although that is what they want us to believe.

[FourScore]

2. You're absolutely right about that.

But so far it's the only one Bush has admitted to authorizing. Maybe we should try some of these interogation tecniques on him to find out how many he really authorized.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

3. I find Bush and Cheney both admitting to authorizing torture in these late days very strange.

I can't quite bend my head around it. I am wondering if they are trying to "get ahead" of some story or revelation that is about to pop soon. It seems like they are trying to openly build a sympathetic viewpoint to their actions.

Or, are they doing it so that when Bush issues the pardons it won't be as large a surprise?

[RiverStone]

4. Which legal entity was Shrub seeking approval from (to torture)?

Of course, the fox was guarding the hen house - so I doubt he really gave a shit what anybody else's legal opinion was on the matter. Maybe he asked his VP what he thought?

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

5. What are people's theories about why he is coming out with this?

Also note that Bush called KSM "one such person".

One of among how many? Did they have to personally authorize all acts until they got the memo from Yoo which pretty much excused anything?

I'm also curious about exactly what was on the "list of tools". It makes it sound like they have a Chinese take-out menu of torture techniques.