Congressional Disclosure on Torture as Internecine Combat

Philip Zelikow details an argument that was “deployed against me” when he opposed torture in the Bush administration: “We briefed the following members of Congress — name name name name name name name — and they didn’t have a problem with this.”

Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) brought the point up to argue against the political argument that informing Congress “incomplete[ly]” amounted to “complicity” in the programs. Apparently such disclosure had rhetorical value in internal Bush administration debate.