President Obama and Bush-era Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talked national security at the White House today, but an aide said she also brought by a "personalized" copy of her new memoir (about growing up in Alabama during the civil rights era), and a young-adult version of the memoir as a gift for Obama girls Sasha and Malia. Rice is in Washington promoting her book.

This video by a Stanford student has been around for a couple of days, but if you haven't watched it's well worth the trouble.

Hear Rice's pitch rise as she defends the harsh interrogation authorized under Bush. Hear her assert that, "with all due respect," Nazi Germany was less of a threat than al Qaida (start at 3 minutes 30 seconds).

Her student interrogator does pretty well pointing out the irrelevancy of some of what she says (4'10"). And she does a great job of treating us to a topsy-turvy view of who deprived the Guantanamo detainees of their due process rights (from about 4'50" to 5'26"). OK, no suspense, it was the Supreme Court. No wonder the student can't answer.

But the best line is her assertion that whatever happened at Guantanamo couldn't have been torture because President Bush authorized it: "By definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Convention Against Torture" (5'36" to 6'26").

Maybe she should see the movie Frost/Nixon: "When the president does it, it's not illegal."

Here're some related links:

Red Cross Report

Document: Cheney, Rice signed off on interrogation techniques

Report: Abusive tactics used to seek Iraq-al Qaida link

CIA official: No proof harsh techniques stopped terror attacks on America