In Washington, torture seems to be a bipartisan sport or Torture whitewash from The Dark Side

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Everyone knew about the torture. Former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage, who along with Karl “Machiavelli” Rove and Lewis “Scooter” Libby was one of the leakers of the identity of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent Valerie Plame in the infamous Niger yellowcake affair, admitted to al-Jazeera that “in hindsight”, “maybe” he should have resigned. Former executive director of the 9/11 Commission Philip Zelikow, very close to secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, also has joined the swelling crowd of “I was against it, too, but in the end I did not resign”. 

More crucially, Armitage also told al-Jazeera why this may well end up being … just another whitewash. “I don’t think the members of the Senate particularly want to look into these things because they will have to look at themselves in the mirror. Where were they? … They were AWOL, absent without leave.” Nobody should expect madam speaker Nancy Pelosi to investigate herself. In Washington, torture seems to be a bipartisan sport. 

Armitage also told al-Jazeera how he and his then-boss, secretary of state Colin Powell, “lost” the battle to respect the Geneva Conventions during Bush’s first term. Japanese officers were tried for war crimes after World War II – by the United States – because they, among other practices, used … waterboarding. That does not seem to apply to Bush administration officials. Welcome to another instance of American exceptionalism.  READ REPORT