Bushist facts

There is no real controversy about whether waterboarding is torture. It is now when Americans do it, and it was when the Nazis, the communist Chinese, the Viet Cong, and the Soviets did it. It even was during the Inquisition, but the New York Times still says:

To the already fierce controversy over whether the Bush administration authorized torture has been added the specter of a cover-up.

Duhbya and Rummy (with Darth Cheney in the dark shadows) authorized waterboarding, among other tortures. There's no doubt about it. They had everyone ask mother-may-I from Rummy. They even had Gonzo and John Yoo write down their transparently bullshit rationales that add up to two giggle-provoking assertions newer before imagined to be plausible in American law:

1. The President can do whatever he wants, especially in wartime, but really anytime.
2. Every restraint of law, domestic or international, is quaint - after all, al Qaeda is so much more scary than the Soviets and their ICBMs that we should all wet ourselves.

The rest of the story is such good work that the sentence I quote above was probably added by a chickenshit editor.