Philippe Sands, professor of law at University College London and author of Torture Team: Rumsfeld’s Memo and the Betrayal of American Values, discusses Douglas J. Feith’s role in coming up with the twisted excuse for abandoning the Geneva Conventions in the name of saving them, the “necessity” excuse invoked by participants in the decision making process, the dismissal, last week, of the charges against the tortured “20th hijacker” al Quatani, the complete lack of evidence against him, his understanding that the torture at Guantanamo was limited to a few cases, the migration and escalation of “aggressive” interrogation tactics and the threat to the bad apples at the top of America’s torture policy due to the immunity clause of the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

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