coverup and lie
The trouble is, normal bounds did not apply at Bagram, because the president had muddied the water with conflicting orders. In a February 2002 memo, he spoke of giving prisoners humane treatment, but only when it suited “military necessity,” and he also said members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban were not entitled to prisoner-of-war status. That led interrogators to believe that they “could deviate slightly from the rules,” according to an Army Reserve sergeant who served at Bagram.
It now appears that those slight deviations included killing prisoners, and then covering up the reason they died.
NYTimes Editorial (read more. . .)