The media did nothing. That's the curious incident. The so-called leader of the free world, the chief executive of our neighbour, ally and biggest trading partner, acknowledges that senior members of his administration met on a regular basis to oversee the torture of prisoners and he knew and approved, and I can't recall seeing anything about the story on any major Canadian news outlet I've visited since the story broke on Friday.
But they all seem to have the time and space to report on the latest bump in Barack Obama's campaign for the Democratic nomination.
Curious indeed.
Update:
Thanks to skdadl in comments, here's a link to the full transcript of the interview reported on in the story linked above.
No, no, pogge -- you don't understand. Torture isn't "torture" if Dubya orders it. Waterboarding isn't "waterboarding," either, as the CIA did/does it (see testimony of Kenneth Wainstein to the SJC).
At emptywheel's urging, I've been watching Google News all weekend for stories anywhere about Bush's little Friday night confessions, and there is close to nothing, anywhere. I did find a TV station in Louisiana (Shreveport) that included the diagnostic quotes, but there's nothing even in the major British papers, except the Telegraph reported the first of the two ABC reports (last Wednesday).
Michael Kesterton may have included some of Bush's lines in a round-up on the weekend, but I can't get past the G&M wall to read that.
Oh, and the WaPo noted the interview but claimed it already scooped the story years ago, which is mainly not true except, in a way, of course, we all knew.
PS: You should get the second ABC link, the transcript of Raddatz's interview with Bush, which only appeared late on Friday, in here as well.
Don't you know Pogge, Bush isn't president anymore? Not only that, but the last eight years didn't happen. What's that? I can't hear you. LALALALALALALA. I can't hear you.
Everybody already knows, so I don't see how this is important news anyway.
The torture isn't news but Bush's admission that higher level officials were involved is. Up until now the party line has always been that it was a few "bad apples" in the lower ranks who misbehaved while everyone else comported themselves according to the highest possible standards.
Good torture timeline started by Larisa @ at-Largely.
A curious detail that I can't explain (just cribbing again from EW's place): notice how, in that interview with Raddatz, Bush keeps repeating "in 2003"?
Things that make you go hmmn.
This story should be getting traction but I'm not really surprised it isn't. Any Americans who didn't already believe that high ranking officials were involved in the torture decisions are dead enders who still wouldn't believe it if the CIA waterboarded them. Those who did already believe it, like most of the rest of the planet, are looking for vindication for having been right all along.
That really isn't much of a story compared to "Orange JuiceGate" or "BitterGate" or whatever is the latest idiocy to come out of what has to be the world's stupidest way to select a leader. "Bush Admits to What You Already Knew" just isn't that compelling a headline compared to manufactured outrage over fictional insults to rural Pennsylvanians that nobody in federal politics has given a damn about for 20 years.
This story would only get traction if it forced McSame to repudiate Bush. But, given that McSame has absolutely no McShame over becoming a self made object of derision, it ain't likely to happen.
If any of those crony's ever come to Canada, all I can say is we better lock them up as war criminals, even if I have to do it myself.
I'm pissed, disgusted, and appalled at the lack of rioting in the streets in the US.
I don't believe it. Except that I do. Kesterton did quote Bush in the Globe. As follows:
STDS NOW FEATURE IPOS?
"Sounds like a good investment."
President George W. Bush
when he heard that chlamydia, which is a sexually transmitted disease, was on the rise
I heard about this through the quotes that are published each day on the Doonesbury website. It seems that the website of a comic strip is now my best source for news from the States.
G.B. Trudeau is taking a three-month sabbatical from writing Doonesbury, which is a pity, because often my best source for American news stories is the strip itself. At least they're still updating the daily quotes.