File this- sadly- under: No, Duh

As ACLU legislative director Caroline Fredrickson said regarding last week's revelations:

With each new revelation, it is beginning to look like the torture operation was managed and directed out of the White House. This is what we suspected all along.

Truthout links to the articles that report the hardly surprising revelations that top level Bush Administration figures, from VP Dick Cheney on down, were directly involved in policy discussions about torturn.

From Dan Froomkin's piece in The Washington Post:

Discussions were so detailed, ABC's sources said, that some interrogation sessions were virtually choreographed by a White House advisory group. In addition to Cheney, the group included then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, then-secretary of state Colin Powell, then-CIA director George Tenet and then-attorney general John Ashcroft.

At least one member of the club had some qualms. ABC reports that Ashcroft "was troubled by the discussions. He agreed with the general policy decision to allow aggressive tactics and had repeatedly advised that they were legal. But he argued that senior White House advisers should not be involved in the grim details of interrogations, sources said.

According to a top official, Ashcroft asked aloud after one meeting: "Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly."

Lauri in York