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We in the Western world are merrily two-stepping toward authoritarian government.  Appeasement of vested interests and distinct lack of judicial fortitude on behalf of the current American administration are tacitly condoning the use of torture by the security forces of the US.  Al-Jazeera reports on the failure of justice in the US.

“Two Bush administration lawyers who authorised harsh interrogation techniques on terrorism suspects will not face punishment, according to a US justice department report.”

Yes, expecting justice apparently is a little too much to expect within the context of the current American body politic.

“The report, released on Friday by the department’s office of professional responsibility, originally found that John Yoo and Jay Bybee had engaged in professional misconduct.

The report also urged that criminal prosecution be considered for interrogators who relied on their advice.

The harsh techniques Yoo and Bybee authorised included waterboarding of terrorism suspects as the Bush administration tried to elicit intelligence after the September 11, 2001 attacks for capturing or killing anti-American al-Qaeda fighters.” [hyperlinks added by me]

Oh…so they were responsible and will be prosecuted….hurrah US Justice department!  (please note the statement that we need to go after the actual interrogators, because those damn bastards made the policy that gave them the mandate to torture in the first place)

Oh wait.

“The two lawyers “exercised poor judgment by overstating the certainty of their conclusions and underexposing countervailing arguments,” Margolis said.

While he declined to refer concerns about the conduct by Yoo and Bybee to the state bar associations for possible disciplinary action, Margolis said they “can choose to take up the matter.”

Ah, so they were mendacious and the arguments they made were of questionably spurious logic, but we won’t do a damn thing about it.

So to summarize, torture, including the crushing of childrens’ testicles, is a-okay in the U-S-A.