The administration’s “torture regime” has now been laid bare, said Andrew Sullivan in TheAtlantic.com. In a newly declassified 2003 memo, John Yoo of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel advanced the astounding argument that the president of the United States, in the name of national “self-defense,” can ignore federal statutes and international treaties and engage in the sort of harsh interrogation techniques that any civilized society considers torture. The general outlines of this policy have long been known, but the torture memorandum now proves that the Bush administration was seeking a legal “fixing” to justify the policies that led to the abuses at Abu Ghraib, Guant
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Gandhi arrests: Narendra Modi's 'vendetta' against India's oppositionThe Explainer Another episode threatens to spark uproar in the Indian PM's long-running battle against the country's first family
-
How the woke right gained power in the USUnder the radar The term has grown in prominence since Donald Trump returned to the White House
-
Codeword: April 24, 2025The Week's daily codeword puzzle
