As most of you probably know, Sy Hersh at The New Yorker has placed blame for the Abu Ghraib scandal directly at the feet of Rumsfeld.

But this independent Newsweek investigation brings it directly to the Oval Office.

The money quote:

But a NEWSWEEK investigation shows that, as a means of pre-empting a repeat of 9/11, Bush, along with Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and Attorney General John Ashcroft, signed off on a secret system of detention and interrogation that opened the door to such methods. It was an approach that they adopted to sidestep the historical safeguards of the Geneva Conventions, which protect the rights of detainees and prisoners of war. In doing so, they overrode the objections of Secretary of State Colin Powell and America’s top military lawyers—and they left underlings to sweat the details of what actually happened to prisoners in these lawless places.

What does this mean in political terms?

Heh. Hat tip to Kevin Drum.