Launch Hard: The Washington Independent Story opened today. The game stay the game. But it just got more fierce.

And not only did we launch today, but we launched with something I'm extremely proud of. It's a reported piece about the origins, development and persistence of brutality in CIA interrogations in the war on terrorism, and how, despite everything the Bush administration has told us about the "enhanced interrogation" program's value, interrogations remain in a state of disrepair. A taste:

Those with intimate knowledge of the program say that in many cases, U.S. interrogators haven’t even been able to learn the basics about many of those they hold or have held, to say nothing of whatever crucial information they possess. "How do you separate the sheep from the wool? There’s no fingerprints, no DNA," said a former senior intelligence official who helped set up the CIA’s interrogation program, and who would not speak for attribution. "You don’t know if you have Osama bin Laden or Joe Shit the rag-man."

Friends of mine know I take a hyper-critical attitude to my own work. This, I think, earned me my paycheck. I hope you'll check it out.