But W Was Not in the Room, so it's OK

ABC News reports, as the headline says: "Top Bush Advisors Approved 'Enhanced Interrogation'":

In dozens of top-secret talks and meetings in the White House, the most senior Bush administration officials discussed and approved specific details of how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, sources tell ABC News. The so-called Principals who participated in the meetings also approved the use of "combined" interrogation techniques -- using different techniques during interrogations, instead of using one method at a time -- on terrorist suspects who proved difficult to break, sources said. Highly placed sources said a handful of top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects -- whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding. The high-level discussions about these "enhanced interrogation techniques" were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed -- down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic.

The advisers were members of the National Security Council's Principals Committee, a select group of senior officials who met frequently to advise President Bush on issues of national security policy. At the time, the Principals Committee included Vice President Cheney, former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft.

OK, for the record, the Vice President, Secretaries of Defense and State, Attorney General, Head of CIA and the NSA are not 'top advisors'... they are the CABINET. That is the freakin' executive branch. Just leaving the president out of the room, but inviting everyone else, doesn't give him deniability.

Second of all, uh, we've just been told that the VP and top secretaries agreed to torture people. Yup. Now what? Isn't that kinda worse than, I dunno, Watergate or Monica-gate?

Now what? Huh? Now what's going to happen. Put smart money on 'nothing.'

h/t TPM.