The President Knew It, Approved It, Authorized It, But He's Not Responsible
And that's all I have to say about that

Don't you miss the days of Ari Fleischer? He could have handled this whole Abu Ghraib mess a long time ago. That new guy is no use whatsoever. He's not even fun to watch anymore.

Still, I never quite figured out why John Ashcroft would so blatanly refuse to answer Senators' questions. He all but gave them the middle finger.

Contempt Citation
Senator Joseph Biden, a Delaware Democrat, challenged Ashcroft to say whether he was invoking executive privilege in refusing to give Congress the Justice Department memos. Ashcroft said he wasn't invoking executive privilege.

The committee's chairman, Utah Republican Orrin Hatch, gave no indication that he intends to pursue a contempt citation against Ashcroft. The citation, if approved by the full House or Senate, triggers a criminal investigation by a federal prosecutor.
That's quite a sword to fall on. There must be a flurry of buck passing going on over there. I wonder if they're afraid they went too far. But why?! They already decided they could do whatever they wanted, didn't they?

Lawyers Decided Bans on Torture Didn't Bind Bush
A team of administration lawyers concluded in a March 2003 legal memorandum that President Bush was not bound by either an international treaty prohibiting torture or by a federal antitorture law because he had the authority as commander in chief to approve any technique needed to protect the nation's security.
Federal antitorture law? There's a federal law against torturing people? Go figure.

TITLE 18 - PART I - CHAPTER 113C
Sec. 2340. - Definitions
(A) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering;

(B) the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality;

(C) the threat of imminent death; or

(D) the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality;

Sec. 2340A
(c) Conspiracy. - A person who conspires to commit an offense under this section shall be subject to the same penalties (other than the penalty of death) as the penalties prescribed for the offense, the commission of which was the object of the conspiracy.
Oh. See, I thought Bush was consulting with outside lawyers (non-White House) because of the Grand Jury Investigation into the Valerie Plame outing, which was, of course, a violation of TITLE 50 - CHAPTER 15 - Sec. 421

It's so hard to keep them all straight these days.