Conor Friedersdorf
theatlantic.com
Apreil 17, 2013
A dozen years after 9/11, many movement conservatives still want to have it both ways. They want to insist that the Bush Administration was correct to strap prisoners down, prevent them from breathing, and force water into their lungs to terrify them with the sensation of drowning; that it was proper to intimidate them with dogs, slam heads into walls, and deprive them of sleep and darkness; but also that these tactics didn’t amount to torture, just “enhanced interrogations.” They would strenuously object if George W. Bush’s obituary mentioned that, under his leadership, the United States government systematically and illegally tortured people.
Establishment media is averse to the “t” word too. Partisan and ideological disagreements about whether the Bush Administration engaged in torture have caused newspapers like The New York Times to seek out characterizations that permit them to remain neutral players in the controversy.
On Tuesday, the notion that the Bush Administration didn’t torture, and the notion that it is appropriate for media organizations to remain neutral on that question, suffered what should be a fatal blow.
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