The Place of Dead Roads

From the AFP, Cheney's staff backed policies that led to prisoner abuse: ex official:

US Vice President Dick Cheney's office was responsible for directives which led to US soldiers abusing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, a former top State Department official charged...

"There was a visible audit trail from the Vice President's office through the Secretary of Defense, down to the commanders in the field," authorizing practices that led to the abuse of detainees, [former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell] Wilkerson said...

"If you are a military man, you know that you just don't do these sorts of things" because troops will take advantage, or feel so pressured to obtain information that "they have to do what they have to do to get it," Wilkerson said

Remember "Scooter" Libby? Did you know David Addington has Libby's old job now? I guess being a chief sadist has its payoff.

Wilkerson also called David Addington, the vice president's lawyer, "a staunch advocate of allowing the president in his capacity as commander-in-chief to deviate from the Geneva Conventions."

Ah, who needs to worry about treaties. They just get in the way of protecting the good people of America and their Constitution

Article. VI. Clause 2: This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

See also Dan Froomkin over the WashPost.