"Should any American soldier be so base and infamous as to injure any prisoner … I do most earnestly enjoin you to bring him to such severe and exemplary punishment as the enormity of the crime may require. Should it extend to death itself, it will not be disproportional to its guilt at such a time and in such a cause ... for by such conduct they bring shame, disgrace and ruin to themselves and their country."
— George Washington, charge to the Northern Expeditionary Force, Sept. 14, 1775

In an exclusive interview with ABC News on April 11, President George W. Bush admitted what most Americans have suspected — he knew of and approved of torture.

In no uncertain terms, the embattled president told ABC correspondent Martha Raddatz, "And yes, I am aware that our national security team met on this issue and I approved."

Bush also told Raddatz that the group consisted of top national security advisers. Called the Principals Committee, the group included Vice President Dick Cheney, former Attorney General John Ashcroft, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice (currently serving as the Secretary of State), and former Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet.

During the so-called Principals Committee meetings, Rice served as chair.

As a group, they set up a concerted torture plan. The White House prefers to call the program "enhanced interrogation techniques," but nevertheless, the intent was to garner confessions from suspected detainees through physical and mental abuse.

The entire national security team signed on to the plan, going so far as to discuss the methods used, such as simulated drowning — better known as waterboarding — physical punishments such as slapping, the use of dogs to terrorize detainees, hanging suspected terrorists by their hands for long periods of time and sleep deprivation. They even went so far as to determine the number of CIA members present during the various forms of torture and the number of times each technique could be applied on each suspect.

During the years 2002 and 2003, the Department of Justice, headed by Ashcroft, issued memos from its Office of Legal Counsel that justified the use of torture. The memos came from the OLC’s Assistant Attorney General, Jay Bybee, who is now a federal appeals court judge in San Francisco, and his deputy, John Yoo, currently a law school professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

The interrogation techniques violated international law, but members of the White House torture team pointed to the memos issued from the U.S. Justice Department justifying the use of torture, claiming the memos legalized what was classified as illegal under the Geneva Conventions and international law.

In follow-up interviews ABC News discovered that despite policy concerns, Rice did not back down from the decisions made by the White House torture committee. In fact, Rice told the CIA: "This is your baby. Go do it."

Rice is a serious contender to be Sen. John McCain’s running mate.

After the interview was aired, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) issued the following statement: "Who would have thought that in the United States of America in the 21st century, the top officials of the executive branch would routinely gather in the White House to approve torture? Long after President Bush leaves office, our country will continue to pay the price for his administration's renegade reputation of the rule of law and fundamental human rights."

Today, Americans know for a fact that the torture program was operated, managed and directed out of the White House.

History will not judge this infamy kindly. Rather it only affirms the critics who have called the current far-right Republican president's policies a bête noire to the values written into the American Constitution.

Whether it is planning torture in the White House, gearing up for rendition in the vice president's office, establishing plans for Gitmo with Rumsfeld, or backroom deals with Gen. David Petraeus, the resultant fact is that the current president set precedents opposed by the majority of freedom-loving Americans.

This torture disclosure further supports those who said this president and vice president should have never been allowed to finish their terms of office.

Thom Carnevale may be reached at http://sanjuansentinel.blogspot.com.