This is no surprise. It reminds us what a despicable group of immoral people were in high office for many years. But, to take away the emotion, the more important question is: when will those people be held accountable? And what does this mean about the legality of the on-going drone war?

Since the CIA refused to release its report on torture, this will have to do:

A nonpartisan, independent review of interrogation and detention programs in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks concludes that “it is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture” and that the nation’s highest officials bore ultimate responsibility for it.

The sweeping, 577-page report says that while brutality has occurred in every American war, there never before had been “the kind of considered and detailed discussions that occurred after 9/11 directly involving a president and his top advisers on the wisdom, propriety and legality of inflicting pain and torment on some detainees in our custody.” The study, by an 11-member panel convened by the Constitution Project, a legal research and advocacy group, is to be released on Tuesday morning.

Debate over the coercive interrogation methods used by the administration of President George W. Bush has often broken down on largely partisan lines. The Constitution Project’s task force on detainee treatment, led by two former members of Congress with experience in the executive branch — a Republican, Asa Hutchinson, and a Democrat, James R. Jones — seeks to produce a stronger national consensus on the torture question. [emphasis added]

So, at what point can there be a serious impeachment process, or, at the very least, an international criminal trial? When do people like George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and the rest of their cronies stop living a life of luxury and post-government largesse and end up in the dock of justice?

And this should also serve as a warning to the current Administration which continues to engage in a drone war that is legally questionable, not to mention morally objectionable. Years from now, a similar inquiry might logically conclude that the drone war was not justified and violated basic international human rights. And, then, who will be held accountable?