The White House Principals and 24

From Andrew Sullivan (http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/04/ap-confirms-abc.html)

AP Confirms ABC News

Bush administration officials from Vice President Dick Cheney on down signed off on using harsh interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists after asking the Justice Department to endorse their legality, The Associated Press has learned. The officials also took care to insulate President Bush from a series of meetings where CIA interrogation methods, including waterboarding, which simulates drowning, were discussed and ultimately approved.

A former senior U.S. intelligence official familiar with the meetings described them Thursday to the AP to confirm details first reported by ABC News on Wednesday. The intelligence official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the issue.

They knew what they were doing. The law was "fixed" to back up what was already decided.

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This White House acts as if it believes that Fox's TV series 24 is real. But, when the Principals' hero, Jack Bauer, takes matters into his own hands, he knows and accepts if he is called to task for his actions, he will go down. The cowards in the White House aspire to emulate Jack Bauer but, unlike their hero, they hide behind the skirts of dubious legal opinions drafted after they've made their decisions to protect their backsides.

ABC and AP report that the CIA came to the Principals for approval of interrogation techniques. It seems the CIA wanted cover from the White House for what it believed to be illegal. Astonishingly, the CIA got what it asked for from the Vice President of the United States, the Secretary of Defense of the United States, the Secretary of State of the United States, the Attorney General of the United States, and the National Security Advisor of the United States, all with the approval of the President of the United States. What a sad time for the United States.

September 11 shook the Bushies to their core. They came into office knowing, yes knowing, that because the United States was the biggest and strongest in the world, no one was stupid enough to really try to hurt us. The Bushies came into office knowing that the United States needed no allies. So, they told the rest of the world, we're us, we don't care what you think or want, we are so important, so strong, so us, you must endure whatever we want to do and do whatever we want you to do. September 11 proved the Bushies wrong and they were terrified. Their reaction to their fear will take generations to overcome and may well haunt the United States forever.