Washington officials have revealed to the New York Times that a series of classified, undisclosed documents from the U.S. Justice Department details their "secret" endorsement of severe, torture-laden interrogation techniques used by the CIA. As the Times reports, in early 2005 (shortly after former attorney general Alberto Gonzales assumed his duties), the Justice Department issued a secret legal opinion that was essentially "an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency." This was in stark contrast to the opinion the department issued only a couple months earlier, where they publicly denounced the use of torture as "abhorrent."

However, as officials report, the newly revealed secret opinion "explicit[ly]" authorizes and allows "a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures" to be used in interrogating terror suspects. Then, of course, comes the kicker. From The Times:

Later that year, as Congress moved toward outlawing “cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment, the Justice Department issued another secret opinion, one most lawmakers did not know existed, current and former officials said. The Justice Department document declared that none of the C.I.A. interrogation methods violated that standard.

Although the Supreme Court has repeatedly attempted to impose limits on interrogation tactics, and the Bush administration has reportedly renounced their most extreme techniques, the disturbing fact remains that this 2005 secret opinion is actually still in effect, and reaffirmed by several subsequent, recent legal memorandums.

The Times staff interviewed about 24 current and former counterterrorism officials over three months as they gathered more information about this secret authorization; the article also provides a good history of the U.S.'s legal struggle over interrogation techniques and revelations of torture since the Bush administration started detaining suspects post-September 11th. With this latest eruption of secret documents, there is now a renewed debate in Congress, as they demand that the documents be disclosed.

UPDATE: President Bush's response to the chaos erupting in Congress (from the Times): "Bush Defends Interrogations, Saying Methods Aren't Torture."

A wonderful outspoken moment with former President Carter on CNN: read it here or below:

Pres. Carter: US tortures prisoners, 'I know it'
David Edwards and Jason Rhyne

Former president Jimmy Carter isn't just suspicious that the US is using torture to extract intelligence from detainees -- he's absolutely convinced.

Asked by CNN's Wolf Blitzer if, by Carter's definition of the word, the United States had used torture during the Bush administration, the Nobel Peace Prize winner was adamant:

"I don't think it, I know it," he said. "Certainly."

Pressed by Blitzer on whether that meant that President Bush was lying, Carter was equally clear.

"The president is self-defining what we have done and authorized in the torture of prisoners," said Carter."Yes."

Earlier in the interview, Carter said Bush's denial this week that the US did not in fact torture detainees was "not an accurate statement if you use the international norms of torture as has always been honored in the last 60 years, since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was promulgated."

"But you can make your own definition of human rights and say we don't violate them," he added, "and you can make your own defintion of torture and say we don't violate them."

Carter was equally outspoken in a Wednesday interview with the BBC, calling Vice President Dick Cheney a "disaster," according to Reuters.

"He's a militant who avoided any service of his own in the military," he said of Cheney, adding that the vice president "has been most forceful in the last 10 years or more in fulfilling some of his more ancient commitments that the United States has a right to inject its power through military means in other parts of the world."

"You know he's been a disaster for our country," Carter continued. "I think he's been overly persuasive on President George Bush and quite often he's prevailed."