Some days I tell myself that nothing in the news would shock me, not anymore. Some days I'm wrong. Like when I read a legal memorandum churned out by the Justice Department, with the aid of distinguished counsel in the White House and in the Office of the Vice President. It's a memo that explains in 48-page detail why the Constitution and laws of the United States permit torture.

. . .

And so, half a century after the Nuremberg Trials, American officials are now found citing the very arguments made there - by the defense. Here is the same old refrain used to justify torture and worse: Orders Are Orders. It sounded better in the original German: Befehl Ist Befehl. Indeed, the whole memo sounds like some pallid translation from the German penal code circa 1938. ("In light of the complete authority over the conduct of war, without a clear statement otherwise, criminal statutes are not read as infringing on the President's ultimate authority in these areas. . . .") The Nazis were more concise; they had one word for this whole, strained line of reasoning -fuhrerprinzip.

# posted by Squach : 5:12 PM   |