Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

The issue has been fairly well covered, but I'd like to direct the reader to this great Salon-article by way of Der Spiegel (English version):

Inside the Pentagon, officials are arguing with Vice President Dick Cheney about a new set of US Defense Department guidelines (pdf-file) for interrogating suspected terrorists. The debate over an anti-torture bill is a sad moment for a country that once stood for human rights.
(snip)
How did we get to this point? Because the United States is bound by the Geneva Convention governing prisoners of war, and by the 1987 Convention Against Torture with its prohibitions against torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, McCain's legislation should not even be necessary.
But after 9/11, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (at that time White House counsel to the president) and others gave their legal opinion that prohibitions on "cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment" didn't apply to noncitizens being held by the United States outside the United States. Then, because torture, even outside the United States, remains a crime, they redefined "torture" so narrowly that almost all violent and coercive methods of interrogation were excluded. Then, because of the U.S. criminal statute making violations of the Geneva Conventions a crime, they insisted that the conventions did not apply to anyone they termed a suspected al-Qaida member.
These opinions were an attempt to provide legal cover so that U.S. personnel and contractors could engage in coercive interrogations without fear of criminal prosecution.

Please go read the whole article.