You are talking about how things should have been, not the reality. Reality was that it was explicitly policy, they weren't hiding it, they were rationalizing

You are talking about how things should have been, not the reality. Reality was that it was explicitly policy, they weren't hiding it, they were rationalizing it. You can read much of it yourself: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torture_Memos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torture_Memos