When it comes to torture, it’s the system.
Today’s New York Times carries a valuable analysis by Scott Shane running through how the revelation of the destroyed CIA torture tapes underscores the agency’s fears of having the administration turn on it. That is, after manipulating the law to justify ordering the CIA’s torture of Abu Zubaydah, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other al-Qaeda detainees, the Bush administration might finally prosecute someone low on the CIA food chain for doing what they ordered him or her to do. The agency watched Donald Rumsfeld, William Haynes and Ricardo Sanchez walk while Lynndie England and Charles Graner took the fall for Abu Ghraib. No one wants to be the Lynndie England of the Black Sites.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=179187