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Bush fails to condemn torture
11/06/2004 06:51 - (SA)
Washington - President George W. Bush said on Thursday he ordered US officials to follow the law while interrogating suspected terrorists, but he side-stepped an opportunity to flatly denounce the use of torture.
Bush's comments came as a two-year-old state department document surfaced warning the White House that failing to apply international standards against torture could put US troops at risk.
"What I've authorised is that we stay within US law," Bush told reporters at the close of the G-8 summit in Georgia.
Asked if torture is ever justified, Bush replied, "Look, I'm going to say it one more time. The instructions went out to our people to adhere to law. That ought to comfort you."
Bush's comments follow disclosure of justice department memos to the White House advising the president that he could suspend international treaties prohibiting torture. The justice department also told the White House that US laws against torture do not apply to the war on terror.
Bush said he doesn't recall seeing any of the justice department advice.
Democrats say that by suggesting that Bush could legally authorise torture, the memos laid the legal foundation for Iraqi prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib prison.
Supreme authority
The memos say torture "may be justified" against al-Qaeda detainees in US custody abroad and laws and treaties barring torture could be trumped by the president's supreme authority to act as necessary in wartime.
After the justice department's first memo to the White House, the state department responded that failing to apply the Geneva Conventions to detainees from the war in Afghanistan - whether al Qaeda or Taliban - would put US troops at risk.
"A decision that the conventions do not apply to the conflict in Afghanistan in which our armed forces are engaged deprives our troops there of any claim to be protected of the convention in the event they are captured," wrote state department legal adviser William Taft IV in a February 2, 2002 memo to presidential counsel.
Furthermore, refusing Geneva standards to detainees "weakens prosecutions afforded by the conventions to our troops in future conflicts," Taft wrote. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the state department memo.
The state department also advised that following Geneva standards "demonstrates that the United States bases its conduct not just on its policy preferences, but on its international legal obligations."
Five days after the state department memo was written, Bush decided the Geneva Conventions apply to Taliban prisoners but not to captured al-Qaeda terrorists.
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