<div class="mini gray">Illustration by: Matt Mahurin</div>

<p><img width="165" height="165" mahurin="" matt="" title="" alt="Nationalsecurity.jpg" src="/files/washingtonindependent/testing-icon-with/Nationalsecurity.jpg" class="left" /></p>

<p>If Valentine’s Day didn’t already make you want to throw up, Paul Kiel at TPM Muckraker has <a title="something to turn your stomach over" href="http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/justice_dept_official_cia_wate.php" id="rf3e">something to turn your stomach over</a>. Steve Bradbury, the <a title="unconfirmed-but-still-in-office head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Council" href="http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/004506.php" id="weud">unconfirmed-but-still-in-office head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Council</a>, wrote <a title="secret legal opinions in 2005 and 2006 justifying waterboarding" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/washington/04interrogate.html?_r=2&amp;hp=&amp;oref=slogin&amp;pagewanted=all&amp;oref=slogin" id="up1v">secret legal opinions in 2005 and 2006 justifying waterboarding</a> and other war crimes. Today, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) asked Bradbury how such obvious war crimes could be legal, especially given how the U.S. prosecuted Japanese officials for waterboarding in World War II. <br /><br />

Bradbury’s answer: It depends on how much water is used. &quot;Our office has advised the CIA when they proposed waterboarding, that the use of the procedure, subject to strict limitations and safeguards, was not torture, did not violate the Anti-Torture Statute,&quot; he said. The Japanese used &quot;forced consumption of mass amounts of water,&quot; you see, and so because the U.S. uses an unspecified amount of water less than that of <i>Imperial Japan</i>, it’s legal.<br /><br />

Perfect. So the question is: How much water does the CIA have to force someone to ingest in order for it to be torture? I’m calling the Justice Department.</p>