The Washington Post has an extraordinary five-page report on torture today. In this case, it's not just the crime, but the cover-up:
Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush was being stubborn withhis American captors, and a series of intense beatings and creativeinterrogation tactics were not enough to break his will. On the morningof Nov. 26, 2003, a U.S. Army interrogator and a military guard grabbeda green sleeping bag, stuffed Mowhoush inside, wrapped him in anelectrical cord, laid him on the floor and began to go to work. Again.
Itwas inside the sleeping bag that the 56-year-old detainee took his lastbreath through broken ribs, lying on the floor beneath a U.S. soldierin Interrogation Room 6 in the western Iraqi desert. Two days before, asecret CIA-sponsored group of Iraqi paramilitaries, working with Armyinterrogators, had beaten Mowhoush nearly senseless, using fists, aclub and a rubber hose, according to classified documents.
...
Hours after Mowhoush's death in U.S. custody on Nov. 26, 2003, militaryofficials issued a news release stating that the prisoner had died ofnatural causes after complaining of feeling sick. Armypsychological-operations officers quickly distributed leaflets designedto convince locals that the general had cooperated and outed keyinsurgents.The U.S. military initially told reporters that Mowhoush had beencaptured during a raid. In reality, he had walked into the ForwardOperating Base "Tiger" in Qaim on Nov. 10, 2003, hoping to speak withU.S. commanders to secure the release of his sons, who had beenarrested in raids 11 days earlier.
Unfortunately, our President is objectively pro-torture, and after this week's showdown on Capitol Hill, there's no longer any way to pretend otherwise:
