A series of leaked legal memos has revealed that since late 2001 the Administration has been quietly but fundamentally reshaping America's stance on torture.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040621-650689,00.html

A senior Pentagon official says the rules for interrogation in Iraq were "more aggressive than the ones at Guantanamo." Stress positions, sleep deprivation, the use of dogs to intimidate detainees—all violations of Geneva—were allowed in Iraq, though they had not been used at Guantanamo. At Abu Ghraib, detainees wore plastic bracelets printed with their ID number and the word terrorist, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Though Administration officials say they never authorized the use of torture, some members of Congress are furious that the U.S. even looked for ways to justify it. "It's just incredible," Republican Senator John McCain told Time. "Why doesn't every nation in the world now have a green light to do everything it thinks is necessary to combat a 'terrorist threat'?"

A Pentagon official tells Time that Rumsfeld is arguing privately to declassify the interrogation techniques because, coming out piecemeal, they are doing a lot of political damage. Some high-ranking military officials, however, say that al-Qaeda already trains its recruits on techniques in the Army field manual, and that if the other ones are made public, the terrorists could use that to their advantage. Things could get even worse. A Republican Senator says charges of manslaughter and rape may soon be brought against U.S. personnel involved in handling detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan.