Addington Was Outraged

The 21st of 25 excerpts from The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals by Jane Mayer:

On June 29, 2006, less than a year after Addington called the effort to revive the Geneva Conventions an "abomination," the Supreme Court ruled emphatically that the Bush Administration had to abide by these laws in its war on terror. The Supreme Court's ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld rejected the Bush Administration's radical legal theories even more soundly than the earlier decisions. . . .

The judgment had numerous ramifications, not the least of which was that if Geneva's rules applied to terror suspects, the CIA's "enhanced interrogations" were potentially war crimes. People could be prosecuted.

Addington was outraged. Whe he did next shocked several colleagues. Rather than complying with the Supreme Court's judgment, Addington had the legislation drafted to overturn the Court.

Copyright 2008 by Jane Mayer. All Rights Reserved