Certainly, the manual doesn’t expressly authorize waterboarding or any of the more obvious tortures… but then again, what part of “name, rank and serial number” is missing here? The entire scheme of interrogations is illegal, and what’s more remarkable, any experienced interrogator would tell you that this level of infliction of disrespect and discomfort imposed on the subject is utterly ineffective to boot, though this is actually not the point… the point is, it is utterly illegal, and the American military’s interrogators are, because these methods are utterly illegal, not trained in them. [Indeed, the SERE techniques were to try to get American personnel not to make false confessions... not to avoid "spilling the beans". We can't even figure out the proper justification to throw out the rule book!]

Sadly, none of this will be talked about in the last 22 days of our election, and I still believe most Americans simply don’t care at all about a bunch of foreigners, even as the rest of the world continues to hold this up as one of their leading grudges against the United States, even as it is clear that the United States needs the cooperation of other peoples and nations to achieve its strategic goals. And Republican appointed courts– such as the galling court in Washington that overruled Judge Urbina’s order that habeas corpus meant something– will provide whatever cover they can for the remainder of the Bush Administration.

But piece by piece, the evidence mounts daily now that the policies of the Bush Administration were not merely misguided and ineffective… but entirely illegal from conception. As I’ve said before, I only hope I live long enough to see those responsible brought to account.