A new article at Truthout describes how Paul Wolfowitz issued a military directive in March 2002 that loosened rules against human experimentation and protections for subjects of such research that had been in place since the early 1970s. According to sources within the Department of Defense, the Wolfowitz Directive, “Protection of Human Subjects and Adherence to Ethical Standards in DoD-Supported Research”, was used to support a top-secret Special Access Program at Guantanamo funded through the Defense Department’s black budget involving “deception detection”, interrogation, and other research upon detainees.

A 2003 decision by the Board of Veterans Affairs found that SERE mock torture techniques had caused PTSD in a serviceman. This directly contradicts the Bush-era OLC claims that there were no reports of “prolonged mental harm” from exposure to the SERE program. SERE techniques were reverse-engineered for torture purposes by both the CIA and the Department of Defense.

After three-and-a-half years, author Michael Otterman is closing shop over at his “American Torture” blog. The site was named after his book of the same title. Much of what I have written about over the years first found its expression in Michael Otterman’s incredible history of U.S. torture experimentation and implementation. While his website isn’t accepting or posting new submissions, Mike isn’t dropping off the radar. Along with Richard Hil and Paul Wilson, he just published another amazing work of political journalism. In his new book, Erasing Iraq: the Human Costs of Carnage, Otterman again traces the history of U.S. intervention in Iraq.

BBC reports that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has confirmed the existence of a second prison site at Bagram. The presence of a second site has long been suspected, a prison the Afghans call Tor Prison, or the “Black” Prison.

Scarecrow’s post, Why BP’s Oil Disaster Scenario Wasn’t Considered During Environmental Review, examines in-depth how the legal mechanisms for ensuring such entirely foreseeable disasters don’t occur in the first place, were rigged by our MOTU. How? I’d say, by playing both Creators of the Known Universe, and the mere creatures of that god, just like the rest of us.

Over the past month, former Vice President Dick Cheney, torture memo author John Yoo and ex-Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen said waterboarding is a safe interrogation method, with Thiessen going so far as to say it’s sanctioned by the Catholic Church. But a never before released DOD memo said the torture method leaves psychological damage and is unsafe. Moreover, there’s been a serious campaign within the SERE community to ban waterboarding from the one Navy school where it is still used.

There are many things which are legal as long as one consents to having it done. This is the failure of the new Republican meme that because we train our soldiers with some of the torture techniques, QED they can not be torture. What this fails to take into account is consent.

This is an adult, clear sighted reason to organize protests and demand accountability.