You may recall Colonel Laurence Wilkerson, the former chief of staff to Colin Powell who recently caused a…hullabaloo when he shocked, shocked everyone with his report of the existence of a cabal that has hijacked foreign policy under Bush. Well, Colonel Wilkerson now tell us the orders to torture prisoners came from the highest levels of government, specifically Cheney’s office.

"The secretary of defense under cover of the vice president’s office," Wilkerson said, "regardless of the president having put out this memo" – "they began to authorize procedures within the armed forces that led to what we’ve seen."

He said the directives contradicted a 2002 order by President George W. Bush for the U.S. military to abide by the Geneva conventions against torture.