Disappeared News

An article in the International Herald Tribune with a New York Times byline has not, for some reason, appeared in the New York Times itself. At least, not on their website or where Google could find it. And this is an article that should be widely available to Americans.

CIA acknowledges Bush signed secret directive on interrogating terror suspect provides a direct link between Bush, his network of secret prisons, and the methods used at those prisons and other interrogation sites:

The CIA has acknowledged for the first time the existence of two classified documents, including a directive signed by President George W. Bush, that have guided the agency's interrogation and detention of terror suspects.

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The contents of the documents were not revealed, but one of them is "a directive signed by President Bush granting the CIA the authority to set up detention facilities outside the United States and outlining interrogation methods that may be used against detainees."

While the Times may not have brought this news to the public, there is an editorial printed the same day with background for the story, headlined Spin and Consequences:

When President Bush announced in September that he was transferring 14 men suspected of heinous acts of terrorism to Guantánamo Bay, his aim was baldly political — to stampede Congress into passing a profoundly flawed law that set up military tribunals to try “illegal enemy combatants” and absolved U.S. officials of liability for illegally detaining and torturing prisoners.

But that cynical White House move may also have unintentionally provided the loose thread to unravel the secrecy and lawlessness that have cloaked the administration’s handling of terrorism suspects.

.  .  .  when Mr. Bush announced that he was sending the 14 prisoners to Guantánamo for trial, he effectively confirmed the existence of the secret C.I.A. prisons. Later, in the debate over the Military Commissions Act of 2006, Mr. Bush said that Congress had to absolve C.I.A. agents of any legal responsibility for their actions so he could order them to go on interrogating prisoners.

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Americans have a right to know what standards their president has been applying to the treatment of prisoners. The nation’s image is at stake, as well as the safety of every man and woman who is fighting Mr. Bush’s so-called war on terror.

These snippets don't do justice to the complete articles. Have a peek at them while they remain available on the Web.