Faces of those who made torture U.S. policy

Top (L-R): Condi Rice, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and Alberto Gonzales.

Bottom (L-R): David Addington, Jim Haynes, John Yoo, Jay Bybee, and George Tenet

All are former high-ranking U.S. government officials, both elected and appointed, and all very powerful.

Call them the "Bush Torture Team" — They authorized it, they decided how to implement it, and they crafted the legal fig leaf to justify it. The rest is history, however reflection never hurts, or does it?

• April 16, 2009: On this date, the Obama administration released four memos that were used to authorize torture in interrogations during the Bush administration. When President Obama released the memos, he said, "It is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution.”

The problem is, those who carried out their "duties relying on good faith" should have know better - if they were professional interrogators, which we now know many were not.

Plus, the "legal advice" from DOJ in those secret John Yoo/Jay Bybee memos approved up and down the line, were designed to take the illegal (torture is and has been illegal, unlawful and a war crimes for decades) and made torture somehow "legal" — that is, to provide cover for future prosecution, which apparently the Obama is willing to provide.

Of the "13" that this article highlights, and not pictured above are John Rizzo, Steven Bradbury, and Jim Mitchell (along with this partner, Bruce Jessen).

Summary: Between 9/11 and the end of 2002, the "Torture 13" (10 pictured above and three not pictured) decided to torture detainees, then they reverse-engineered the techniques, and then they crafted the legal cover.

So, here is who they are, and summary of what role they played and what they did. Can it ever be proven in a court of law, or will it? That is doubtful. And, that is the biggest crime of all. (follow the link here).

We should never be reluctant to reflect on the past. We have to hope that we never made these same mistakes again, either by accident, or on purpose and by design. Justice is never served the way we have handled this issue.

We say we are a country of laws and not men. We say that no one is above or beneath the law. So, are we? Dop we really practice what we preach? At this point, I say no. It is one huge hypocritical lie.

What does that say for the country and for our future?