The Smoking Memo?

Jess Bravin reports in Monday's Wall Street Journal (subscription required) about a classified legal memorandum prepared by the Pentagon's Office of General Counsel that appears designed to find every legal workaround possible to justify coercive interrogation and torture at Guantanamo Bay. This report comes in the wake of disclosures about other memoranda %u2014 one written in early 2002 by UC Berkeley law professor John Yoo while with the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, and a second written by White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales -- justifying the White House's overall Guantanamo Bay plan. This latest memo, signed in April 2003, goes much further than those though-- it specifically authorizes the use of torture tactics, up to and including those which may result in the death of a detainee. (Update: A copy of the story can be viewed here by non-WSJ subscribers.)

I really suggest reading all of Phil's post. And then read Dr. DeLong's response.