The Washington Post’s Joby Warrick reports that in 2002 the Justice Dept. told CIA interrogators they could torture terrrorist suspects as long as they had an "honest belief" they weren’t torturing terrorist suspects. In an inventive piece of legal reasoning, CIA officials were made immune from accusations of torture if they believed in "good faith" that they weren’t torturing. Of course, only the interrogator themselves would know if they were acting in good faith to not torture.

Thanks to ACLU Freedom of Information Act requests, the public continues to learn more about these and other "torture memos" issued by the Justice Dept’s Office of Legal Counsel. As has been widely noted, these memos paradoxically provide both immunity for interrogators (they were following legal advice) and Bush’s lawyers (they were providing their best legal advice, not torturing).

The ever-growing outrage about these memos could lead to charging former Justice lawyers like Jay Bybee and John Yoo for war crimes.-MB

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