Two secret White House memos from 2003 and 2004 have been discovered that explicitly endorsed the use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods. The documents, reported on today in The Washington Post by Joby Warrick, were requested by then-CIA Director George Tenet to quell fears within his agency of public and or judicial reprisals should the torture program become public knowledge. Formerly, Justice Department memos had endorsed the interrogation methods conducted by the CIA, but nothing in writing mentioning the program had ever come out of the White House, which worried Intelligence officials afraid of being stuck holding the bag for a program which obviously violated international law.

The revelation that the White House approved the torture methods conducted by the CIA is hardly a surprise to anyone who has watched our supposed leaders over the past several years use every obstructionist tactic known to man to prevent the disclosure of their unlawful methods. However now that a direct link to the Bush Administration has been found, in writing, the next administration and its Justice Department should make no allowances whatsoever for the criminals that disgraced this country with such barbaric behavior. All those involved with these torture programs should be tried and sent to prison if convicted.

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The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

TakePart Gang:

35 Million Tons of Toxic Stew by Wendy Cohen

“Waterboard Thrill Ride” Opens At Coney Island by Blair Golson

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Nicole Hughes:

Green Summer Music Tours Not To Be Missed

Eat Your Veggies: Quit Composting in the Fridge

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Andy Kondrat:

Almost Half of Earth’s Primates In Danger of Extinction

Beijing’s Pollution Not Gone, Just Moved Outside of Town

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Jon Popham:

GOP: Drill More Oil Or We’ll Shut Down the Government

Global Warming’s “Sausage Fest” Effect

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Gina Telaroli:

Olympic Flag Bearer for the US: A Champion of  Darfur

Time to Act: Sexual Assault and Women in the Military

An artist has erected an animatronic waterboarding attraction on New York’s Coney Island amusement park.

No joke: According to the A.P.:

For a dollar, visitors get to look through a barred window on a Guantanamo-like interrogation, enacted by animated robots. The hooded figure leans over a man in an orange jumpsuit, his face covered with a towel and his body tethered to a tilted plane.

President Bush already vetoed Congress’ attempt to ban waterboarding, so if you want to call on the CIA to refrain from employing its practice, you’ll have to takepart by contacting CIA director Michael Hayden.

The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

TakePart Gang:

Everything I Know About Climate Change, I Learned in the Fifth Grade by Martin Musatov

When Torture Is Condoned, Is FISA That Shocking? by Wendy Cohen

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Nicole Hughes:

Baltimore Woman Turns Tragedy Into Art

Why Don’t We Do More to Stop Global Warming?

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Andy Kondrat:

Foods You Should and Shouldn’t Buy Organic

Paper or Plastic? The Environmental Impact

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Jon Popham:

The Energy Independence Bill: A Filibuster Odyssey

“Bruno” Fools Mossad Agent

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Gina Telaroli:

While Iran Tests Missiles, Test These 5 Iranian Films

Mao’s Out, Time to Capitalize On the Olympics

The Senate passed the FISA bill today giving telecoms immunity and allowing the government to spy on all Americans. Yes, this violates the privacy the constitution is meant to protect us from.   Spying…hmm… that doesn’t sound very American. But it also doesn’t surprise me.

This past week, I came across an article and radio segment about torture.   The former is a frightening piece in Vanity Fair where author Christopher Hitchens undergoes the controversial drowning technique and concludes, “believe me, it’s torture.”

And on This American Life, Ira Glass interviews Basim, an Iraqi national who worked as an interpreter for the U.S. Army. He talks about the time he had to purposely mistranslates in order to keep a situation from turning violent. And then Basim mentions the Abu Ghraib photos and how they changed the Iraqi’s perception of Americans. Before the photos were published, even if Iraqis mistrusted Americans, they viewed Americans as generally fair and ethical. But after the photos of Abu Ghraib were public, it was as if everything they perceived about Americans was a lie and it was even more difficult to believe we could do anything good.   Almost instantly, Americans were seen as less fair, ethical and evolved. (You can listen to the entire show here. Basim’s segment is about 20 minutes in.)

Does passing the FISA bill reinforce the perception of unfair and unjust America?

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Environmentalists, including Takepart’s very own Kerry Truman, are having a sea cow over the Bush administration’s attempt to exempt the Navy from a ban on a certain sonar that causes bleeding, mating disruptions and death of whales and other animals. Well, today a district court federal judge ruled that the Navy should indeed be allowed be allowed to use this sonar and harm sea creatures. This ruling is fair and just. If the U.S. military gets to break international law and violate the Geneva Convention through waterboarding and torture, the Navy should AT LEAST be allowed to break one little Coastal Zone Management Act. Unfortunately, the judge only gave the Navy permission to temporarily use this sonar and will be hearing arguments from the Navy and whale huggers over at The Natural Resources Defense Council next week. So if you’re a fellow whale lover, stay tuned for action alerts from the NRDC .