If this is true...

...someone's in deep, deep kimchee. Apparently, the Bush administration didn't just specifically authorize waterboarding, they were dumb enough to write it down:

The Bush administration sent two secret memos endorsing the use of waterboarding against al-Qaida suspects, according to today's Washington Post. Officials were prompted by worries within the CIA that the administration might later distance itself from the way suspects were interrogated, the paper reports.
Officials told the paper that in June 2003 the then CIA director, George Tenet, asked for written approval for secret interrogations. A few days later he got a 'brief memo conveying the administration's approval for the CIA's interrogation methods'.

Someone is going to get filleted over this one, but it's unlikely it'll be anyone important. Just ask COL Karpinski...

By: Brant