Official torture
There is substantial evidence of legal malpractice by lawyer Yoo...
There is substantial evidence of a back channel between Addington and Yoo...
There is substantial public evidence of exceptional access provided to the private contractors...
There is substantial evidence that the waterboarding went outside what was approved by the OLC opinions. The opinions themselves disclosed this fact...
Put these elements together: actual torture under our existing laws, the possibility of actual knowledge that the OLC opinions were phony, conduct outside the restrictions even of those opinions and a possible improper motive outside of legitimate national security concerns. That's a theory of criminal liability, and it has not yet been eliminated by the evidence. From a prosecutor's perspective, the stonewalling we have seen -- aggressive assertions of executive privilege, refusals to cooperate with inspectors general, cover stories that don't withstand scrutiny -- raises suspicions further.
