Greetings, you're listening to podcast number 127 of Blast the Right.

I'm your host Jack Clark, great to have you on board.

You'll hear a torrent of new evidence that's just come out which further details the Bush administration's torture regime.

You'll learn about the self-styled war council, use of Chinese torture techniques,

vehement protests by the military's own lawyers, hiding the abuse from the Red Cross,

and recent medical findings of marks of torture on detainees bodies.

In a concluding quick past, you'll hear Dick Morris seriously lie about democratic tax plans and learn how to respond to any right-winger spouting similar nonsense.

Let's get right into it.

I've said that people we don't torture, and we don't.

Originally, I intended to use today's show to update several past podcasts.

One of the updates was to be on right-wing pro-torture policies. There was a new story on that.

But then there was another new story the next day, and one the following day, and pretty soon I had five such new developments at hand.

So I'll spend the bulk of today on five torture updates.

While you probably already believe that the Bush administration tortures prisoners, the more details that come out,

the more impossible it is for the Bushians to deny that they explicitly authorize and oversaw a program of torturing detainees.

Sources you'll hear include Maclatchy newspapers, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, MSNBC.com, The Associated Press, The Washington Post, and CBS News.

The first update would concern the so-called war council.

Apparently there were five Bush administration lawyers who were the driving force behind the attempt to legally justify torture.

They, quote, drafted legal opinions that circumvented the military's code of justice, the federal court system, and America's international treaties,

in order to prevent anyone from soldiers on the ground to the president from being held accountable for activities that at other times have been considered war crimes.

These five attorneys called themselves the war council.

They conducted secret meetings every few weeks in each other's offices to plot legal strategy.

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