The Undoing Begins

Today, Wilkerson writes on NiemanWatchdog.org that the media should demand that Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld explain their past conduct -- and definitively state what they consider to be torture.

Niemanwatchdog.org is the other Web site I work for, and I asked Wilkerson to write something on this issue. His central point: "[T]here is enough evidence for a soldier of long service -- someone like me with 31 years in the Army -- to know that what started with John Yoo, David Addington, Alberto Gonzales, William Haynes at the Pentagon and several others, all under the watchful and willing eye of the Vice President, went down through the Secretary of Defense to the commanders in the field, and created two separate pressures that resulted in the violation of longstanding practice and law."

Roundtable Interview

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Bush leaves Wednesday morning for Germany. On Friday he heads to Russia for the annual summit of leaders from the Group of Eight major industrialized nations.

In anticipation of his trip, Bush held a roundtable interview on Monday with reporters from Russia, Germany, Italy and Japan. The transcript was released yesterday.

Tom Raum writes for the Associated Press: "President Bush is toning down his administration's criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin's steps to restrict political and economic freedoms as Russia prepares to host an annual summit of economic powers.

"Bush cited a 'good friendship' with the Russian president, said he hoped to put the finishing touches on a deal to bring Russia into the World Trade Organization, and remarked that it was for others -- not the United States -- to say whether Russia was intent on blackmailing its neighbors on energy. . . .

"While he noted that 'there are problems that are surfacing' in the U.S.-Russian relationship, Bush's words were far milder than those of Vice President Dick Cheney. In a speech in Lithuania in May, Cheney accused the Putin government of backsliding from democracy and exerting more state control over the economy, particularly the energy industry."

A New Approach to Unwanted Questions

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Here's a new tack for Bush: Cutting off an undesirable question before it can even be asked. It worked with an Italian journalist who was part of the roundtable on Monday.

"Q Mr. President, two senior officials of SISMI, the Italian counter-intelligence service, have been arrested just recently.

"THE PRESIDENT: Mario, I'm going to give you a chance to ask another question because I'm not going to talk about ongoing cases. If you'd like to come up with another question --

"Q It's an open case. It's open in the sense that today, there has been a request from the magistrate for the extradition of 26 CIA --

"THE PRESIDENT: Mario -- Mario --