Bush Authorized Torture, Gulags

Those of us with longer memories than some will not have forgotten that Bush signed a certain legal finding by AG Gonzales to this effect a few years back.

Now the CIA has responded to an ACLU request, confirming that Bush himself authorised torture techniques and secret prisons. The CIA described two documents, without releasing them. One is one of them is "a directive signed by President Bush granting the CIA the authority to set up detention facilities outside the US and outlining interrogation methods that may be used against detainees".

Here's New York Times:

The Central Intelligence Agency has acknowledged for the first time the existence of two classified documents, including a directive signed by President Bush, that have guided the agency’s interrogation and detention of terror suspects.

"The C.I.A. referred to the documents in a letter sent Friday from the agency’s associate general counsel, John L. McPherson, to lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union....

"The second document, according to the group, is a Justice Department legal analysis 'specifying interrogation methods that the C.I.A. may use against top Al Qaeda members.'”

The Bush directive is thought to have been issued soon after 9/11, and the Justice Department memo about a year later. The ACLU will press for full disclosure of the docs:

"If President Bush and the Justice Department authorised the CIA to torture prisoners, the public has a right to know."

The Raw Story has more.

Meanwhile, Australia is building it's own version of Gitmo on Christmas Island.