Marty Lederman, on a roll
You see, the CIA apparently uses the less dangerous version of “waterboarding” — not the Spanish Inquisition method, but the technqiue popularized by the French in Algeria, and by the Khmer Rouge — involving the placing of a cloth or plastic wrap over or in the person’s mouth, and pouring or dripping water onto the person’s head. That’s the civilized version of waterboarding — the benign, anodyne, variant of the water treatment, the kind carefully administered by professionals. We would never dream of the barbaric practice of actually forcing the water into the nose and mouth.
Go read “The Underdeveloped Jurisprudence of the Forcing/Pouring Distinction” and wonder how the next President is going to avoid prosecution.
The next President can (and should!) avoid prosecution by obeying the law.
As for Mr. Ashcroft, his distinction without a difference should cut him little ice before the bar.
I meant, what’s the next president going to do to avoid prosecuting dozens or hundreds of people whose fingerprints are on these documents?
Fingerprints are unreliable? :^)