Headline reads: Officials warned about harsh interrogation

According to this news story, "Military psychologists were enlisted to help develop more aggressive interrogation methods, including snarling dogs, forced nudity and long periods of standing, against terrorism suspects.

Before they were approved by then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, such harsh techniques had drawn warnings from military lawyers that they could be illegal, an investigation by the Senate Armed Services Committee has found. Officials familiar with the findings discussed them on condition of anonymity because the information has not been formally released.

The psychologists who helped interrogate terror suspects for the CIA were set to testify Tuesday before the Senate committee, which was expected to release details of the investigation.

The hearing is the committee's first look at the origins of the harsher methods used in Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba and Abu Ghraib in Iraq and how policy decisions on interrogations were vetted across the Defense Department. Its review fits into a broader picture of the government's handling of detainees, which includes FBI and CIA interrogations in secret prisons."

Of course they were warned by attorneys with a moral conscience that the techniques were most likely illegal. Their testimony will prove, once and for all, that the Bush Administration knew exactly what they wanted to do and approved these illegal and degrading techniques used, which, in my view, violate the Geneva Convention and our Constitution. They can and, most likely, will form the base for claims by the World Court in the Hague, to bring charges against Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld in later years. I can't wait for that day! The U.S. does not accept the jurisdiction of the Court over officials within the U.S. but it uses the Court to suit its purpose when other leaders of countries do things we don't approve of, as was the case against Chile's Augusto Pinochet.

We are going to need to decide at some future time whether the laws that pertain to others in the world apply to us as well. I think they should and I think if we believe in the rule of law, we need to get on board with the rest of the world as we are no better than anyone else. Will there be mistakes made by the World Court at times, YES. But there are mistakes made within our own country when it comes to applying the law fairly to its citizens. We too must join in the world institutions if we expect to gain support for positions we hold.