Well, the news has finally broken. Rumsfeld did approve specific coercive interview tactics on detainees.
What tactics did he approve?
Read Captain’s Quarters for the original take on the CNN article, Bush: ‘I have never ordered torture’.
From the CNN article:
Meanwhile, a source told CNN that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld never approved a controversial interrogation technique called “water boarding.” That source had told CNN the opposite Monday.
The senior defense official who provided the original information to CNN now says Rumsfeld only approved “mild, noninjurious physical contact” with a high-level al Qaeda detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and specifically did not approve a request to use water boarding.
The tactic involves strapping a prisoner down and immersing him in water to make the subject feel as though he is drowning.
The documents released Tuesday, as described by administration officials, help to show what ideas were discussed versus what was actually rubber-stamped by the White House in terms of the legal limits of interrogation.
“We want to drive home what was approved and what was speculated about. It is a distinction that has been lost,” one official told CNN.
Senior administration officials say there were a lot of “academic” musings or “opinion” memos written after the terrorist attacks about how to apply interrogation laws and rules to the war on terrorism.
One official said it was “uncharted territory,” and people at various agencies were trying to figure out how to deal with its legalities.
Emphasis in italics mine.
A lot has been made over the fact that the administration consulted with lawyers to see what is and isn’t illegal when interrogating prisoners. I don’t know about you, but I’m rather glad they did this. If you don’t know where the line is, how do you know when you’ve crossed it?