The memos released by the Obama administration were not all that surprising to me. I figured the U.S. was torturing the hell out of detainees. I think it is awful and the Bush administration officials that authorized it should be on trial. I watched the clip of Shephard Smith saying, “We do not f*$king torture!” and could not decide whether he was furious that America did torture people or was he furious that people were insisting that the tactics used by the Bush administration really were torture.

I personally think it was pretty clear that waterboarding, “walling” and shackles were torture. Maybe light torture, but still.

Republicans are mad that the memos were released, but I’m glad they were. I applaud transparency in government. After all, this is our government. We put them there and we have the ultimate authority over them. I’d like to see some hearings and possible criminal charges against those that authorized these methods because I believe in accountability. Something politicians have a difficult time accepting.

It appears that the FBI, the marines, the air force, the army and the navy all opposed these techniques on the grounds that they were “torture” and could subject their personnel to prosecution if carried out. The Chief Legal Advisor to the CITF at Gitmo, Maj Sam W. McCahon,said “I cannot advocate any action, interrogation or otherwise, that is predicated upon the principal that all is well if the ends justify the means and others are not aware of how we conduct our business.” (HuffPo)