



A front page story in the New York Times today begins:

Senior White House officials played a central role in deliberations in the spring of 2002 about whether the Central Intelligence Agency could legally use harsh interrogation techniques while questioning an operative of Al Qaeda, Abu Zubaydah, according to newly released documents. In meetings during that period, the officials debated specific interrogation methods that the C.I.A. had proposed to use on Qaeda operatives held at secret C.I.A. prisons overseas, the documents show. The meetings were led by Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, and attended by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Attorney General John Ashcroft and other top administration officials

"Harsh interrogation techniques"? I know our current president and his administration wants to distance from the "t-word," but why are we, the people and the press, afraid to just call torture torture? Link to related items in the Times about the CIA's destruction of tapes that document the use of torture in the Zubaydah case, Salon has this related piece, also good background reading. Even this former CIA agent who believes torture is helpful calls it "torture." What kind of cowards are we? (via Dan Gillmor)