No surprises in startling Justice report

Is there anyone still naive enough about the Bush administration to be surprised that our leaders ignored concerns raised by the FBI about abusive treatment of terror suspects from 2001-2004? The only surprising thing about the findings of the four-year Justice Department investigation released Tuesday was that anyone in the government protested at all about what one agent called "borderline torture" of detainees. Of course, our leaders -- including President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, now Secretary of State -- made no moves to stop the abusive treatment of detainees held by the United States. The report said FBI agents refused to participate in abusive treatment under the orders of FBI Director Robert Mueller, although they did join in interrogations. Abusive techniques employed by the Pentagon and CIA included snarling dogs, sexual provocation and forced nudity, the Reuters international news agency reported. "Neither the FBI nor the DoJ had a significant impact on the practices of the military with respect to the detainees," the report said. Congressional Democrats called for hearings and criticized administration officials for failing to stop the abuses. "This remains a sorry chapter in our nation's history," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont. Despite the report, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said "inhumane treatment of prisoners is not, and never has been, U.S. policy," Reuters said. The Pentagon stopped authorizing some abusive techniques in 2003, and Congress banned banned inhumane treatment of prisoners in 2005. But Bush vetoed legislation in March that would have barred the CIA from using waterboarding and other abusive techniques.