“President Bush signed a secret Presidential Finding that authorized the CIA to create paramilitary teams which could obtain or eliminate terrorists almost anywhere in the world. Thus the Executive Branch was not only aware of, but actively directing the program. As stated by [journalist] Jane Mayer [in The New Yorker on August 13, 2007]: ‘Accurately or not, Bush Administration officials have described the prisoners’ abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo as the unauthorized actions of ill-trained personnel, eleven of whom have been convicted of crimes. By contrast, the treatment of high value detainees has been directly, and repeatedly, approved by President Bush. The program is monitored closely by the C.I.A. lawyers, and supervised by the agency’s director and his subordinates at the counterterrorism center.’ ”
– M. Cherif Bassiouni, The Institutionalization of Torture by the Bush Administration, Pages 164-165