In his "remarks" at the National Archives on May 21, President Obama spoke of "so-called enhanced interrogation techniques" and said the he "ended them once and for all."

But did he?

Obama ended the use of "enhanced interrogation" through an executive order, but anything that can be ended with an executive order can be restarted with an executive order, so there is no assurance that a later President (or even Obama himself) could not reinstitute the same program that brought us Guatanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, and waterboarding.  Nothing could make this clearer than to point out that, on the same day that President Obama declared that the program was ended "once and for all," former Vice President Cheney declared in a speech to the American Enterprise Institute that he "was and remain[s] a strong proponent of our enhanced interrogation program" and that "every method used was in full compliance with the Constitution, statutes, and treaty obligations."

In order to be sure that these methods have really ended "once and for all," we need a clear adjudication by a court, commission, tribunal, or other public process to establish that what the Bush administration did violated federal law, the Constitution, and international law.  I don't know whether it needs to be a criminal prosecution, a civil judgment, or a bipartison commission.  But we need something that is public and authoritative.  Then, and only then, will those methods be ended "once and for all."

President Obama would prefer not to have to go through that kind of process, and it is clear that his reasons are political and not ethical or moral or legal.  He simply wants to avoid the political divisiveness that such a process could provoke.

I therefore hope that Cheney continues to give speeches and continues to make his views known.  The longer and more often he talks, the more we will see that torture has not ended "once and for all" and that there is still work to do.

GQ magazine has published a slideshow of some of the covers of the Secretary of Defense Worldwide Intelligence Updates that were prepared during the invasion of Iraq and delivered by then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to then-President George W. Bush.  The covers show dramatic (or artistic) photos of military personnel and equipment in Iraq, or entering Iraq, along with Biblical quotations that are (depending on your point of view) inspiring, creepy, blasphemous, or funny.

I looked up some of the Biblical quotations to see how out-of-context they might be, because I was pretty sure that the Bible didn't have much to say about Saddam Hussein, weapons of mass destruction, or invasions of Iraq, and found two quotations that were both contra-indicated and somewhat disturbing.

(In the quotations below, I am using the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, which is somewhat different from the version of the Bible quoted by the Secretary of Defense, which I cannot identify.)

One cover showed a tank backlit with a rising (or setting) sun, along with a quotation from Ephesians 6:13:

"Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."

But the preceding sentence makes it clear that the battle is spiritual and not human or earthly:

"For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."

Another cover showed a picture of Saddam Hussein giving a speech on television, along with a quotation fromr 1 Peter 2:15:

"It is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men."

But the next sentence is telling:

"As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as pretext for evil."

So exactly how tractable was George W. Bush?  Was he really so simple-minded that he could be manipulated with some glossy photos and pseudo-righteous out-of-context Bible verses?

Bush should have remembered what Jesus explained in the Sermon on the Mount, in Mark 7:15-16:

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits."

Vice President Cheney and the neocons brought war and torture, the spiritual forces of evil, and the pretext for evil.  Those were their fruits, and that is how Bush should have known them.