This formerly confidential ICRC report from February 2007 is easily the most damning blow to the Bush legacy.  It details, at length, from perhaps the most legitimate and trusted source for reporting treatment of captive persons, the harsh ill-treatment of the what the report calls “the fourteen,” or the highest value detainees in US custody.  These include Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

While most of what is contained in this report comes as no surprise to me, and probably most of you, it is important because of its source and its intended audience.  Drafted as a summary report for the CIA, this is far from an attention-seeking expose designed to grab media headlines, and furthermore, the ICRC is far from a left-wing media outlet.  Indeed, they are the gatekeepers of the Geneva Conventions.  This is about as legit as it gets.

The conclusion?

Moreover, and in addition to the continuous solitary confinement and icommunicado detention which itself was a form of ill-treatment, twelve of the fourteen alleged that they were subjected to systematic physical and/or psychological ill-treatment.  This was a consequence of both the treatment and the material conditions which formed part of the interrogation regime, as well as the overall detention regime.  This regime was clearly designed to undermine human dignity and to create a sense of futility by inducing, in many cases, severe physical and mental pain and suffering, with the aim of obtaining compliance and extracting information, resulting in exhaustion, depersonalisation and dehumanisation.

The allegations of ill-treatment of the detainees indicate that, in many cases, the ill-treatment to which they were subjected while held in the CIA program, either singly or in combination, constituted torture.  In addition, many other elements of the ill-treatment, either singly or in combination, constituted cruel inhuman or degrading treatment.

Now, out with those memos.  Let’s see the twisted logic and slimy opinions of Yoo, et al, that rationalized this torture.

Let them be laid bare for all the world to see.

hilzoy

I’ve been trying to figure out what to say about the inauguration, with no success at all. I will only say: it feels like waking up from a horrible dream. — I have travelled outside the US a lot. All my life, when people have criticized the US, I have tried to stick up for it where possible, and where it wasn’t possible, to explain. I couldn’t do either with Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, or Iraq, or, since about 2002, really much of anything. For the first time in eight years, I feel as though I can be proud not just of the ideals to which my country aspires, but of how it is working towards them: not just of its aspirations, but of its reality. And that means so much to me.

publius

It’s been difficult to capture in words the swirl of thoughts and emotions I’ve experienced over the last few days.  There’s a fine line between recognizing the magnitude of the moment and being intolerably cheesy.  (Though I’ve really enjoyed Josh Marshall’s readers’ takes — especially this one).

And while I’ve had moments of joy, that’s not really what I’ve been experiencing.  It’s honestly more like relief — and a solemn, perhaps somber, satisfaction after years and years of frustration, anger, and even deep sadness about the Bush administration and its actions.

Ezra Klein

Two things happened yesterday, and they were not, for the future of the country, of equal importance. First, George W. Bush stopped being president. And second, Barack Obama became president. In the arc of the moral universe, in the grand sweep of American history, Obama’s inauguration might have been of more consequence. But in the short-term condition of the country, George Bush’s exit was far more significant.

Matt Yglesias (in response to K-Lo)

Wow. Well, my inaugural good feelings were definitely spoiled a bit by the realization that George W. Bush was heading off to live out his life in a lavish home as a multi-millionaire retiree rather than going to stand trial in the Hague. But hopefully Americans can put our differences aside and work together for a better future or something.

Good riddance.

It’s actually kind of hilarious:

I have to give props to Pres. Bush, that some skillful ducking. He should check out Wii Fit. He’d definitely be way better than this chick:

The similarities are downright eerie.  I’m basically going to treat this post as a laundry list of the monstrosity that I like to call the Bushlin.

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