Yet Another Bad Apple

Lovely:

A senior Army interrogator was convicted late Saturday of negligent homicide in the death of an Iraqi general after he shoved the general head-first into a sleeping bag, sat on his chest and put his hands over his mouth.

The maximum penalty? Three years in a military prison! Not bad for murder. Check out his defense:

Defense lawyers countered that Mr. Welshofer, a 19-year Army veteran, did nothing illegal and was using a technique that his commander had approved for use on uncooperative prisoners.

And here I always assumed that these bad apples were simply acting on their own. Who could've ever imagined that torture and inhumane treatment were actually U.S. policy? Oh, right:

A former top State Department official said (Nov. 20, 2005) that Vice President Dick Cheney provided the "philosophical guidance" and "flexibility" that led to the torture of detainees in U.S. facilities...

"His implementer in this case was [Defense Secretary] Donald Rumsfeld and the Defense Department."

...Wilkerson said "the vice president had to cover this in order for it to happen and in order for Secretary Rumsfeld to feel as though he had freedom of action."