News round-up

A couple of stories that caught my eye earlier in the week:

• Time Magazine's Joe Klein comments on Obama's questioning of General Petraeus when he appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations committee this week. The full transcript here.
• ABC News reports that high-ranking Bush administration officials discussed and approved specific "enhanced interrogation" techniques:

  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.

  The Bush administration's denials on the use of torture are just so many lies.