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Bush Claimed Right to Waive Torture Laws By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent WASHINGTON - President Bush claimed the right to waive anti-torture laws
and treaties covering prisoners of war after the invasion of Afghanistan
and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized guards to strip detainees
and threaten them with dogs, according to documents released Tuesday.
The documents were handed out at the White House in an effort to blunt
allegations that the administration had authorized torture against al-Qaida
prisoners from Afghanistan and Iraq. "I have never ordered torture," Bush said. "I will never
order torture. The values of this country are such that torture is not
a part of our soul and our being." The memos were meant to deal with an election-year headache that followed
revelations about abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, but the documents
also brought to light some practices that the administration decided had
gone too far. Amnesty International revived its call for the appointment
of a special counsel to investigate any torture and ill-treatment of prisoners
in U.S. custody. The Justice Department disavowed a memo written in 2002 that appeared
to justify the use of torture in the war on terror. The memo also argued
that the president's wartime powers superseded anti-torture laws and treaties.
That 50-page document, dated Aug. 1, 2002, will be replaced, Justice
Department officials said. White House counsel Alberto Gonzales said that
some legal memos contained "unnecessary and overbroad discussions"
that could be "subject to misinterpretation." But he added,
"The analysis underpinning the president's decisions stand and are
not being reviewed." A new memo will instead narrowly address the question of proper interrogation
techniques for al-Qaida and Taliban detainees, the Justice Department
said. Bush had outlined his own views in a Feb. 7. 2002, document regarding
treatment of al-Qaida detainees from Afghanistan. He said the war against
terrorism had ushered in a "new paradigm" and that terrorist
attacks required "new thinking in the law of war." Still, he
said prisoners must be treated humanely and in accordance with the Geneva
Conventions. "I accept the legal conclusion of the attorney general and the Department
of Justice that I have the authority under the Constitution to suspend
Geneva as between the United States and Afghanistan, but I decline to
exercise that authority at this time," the president said in the
memo, entitled "Humane Treatment of al-Qaida and Taliban Detainees."
Explaining Bush's memo, Gonzales said the United States "is fighting
"an enemy that does not fight, attack or plan according to accepted
laws of war - in particular the Geneva Conventions." In a separate Pentagon memo, dated Nov. 27, 2002, the Defense Department's
chief lawyer, William J. Haynes II, recommended that Defense Secretary
Rumsfeld approve the use of 14 interrogation techniques on detainees at
Guantanamo Bay, such as yelling at a prisoner during questioning and using
"stress positions," like standing, for up to four hours. Haynes also recommended approval of one technique among harsher methods
requested by U.S. military authorities at Guantanamo: use of "mild,
non-injurious physical contact such as grabbing, poking in the chest with
the finger and light pushing." Among the techniques that Rumsfeld approved on Dec. 2, 2002, in addition
to the grabbing, the yelling and the stress positions: Rumsfeld scribbled a note on Haynes' memo that said, "However, I
stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to 4 hours."
In a Jan. 15, 2003, note, Rumsfeld rescinded his approval of Haynes'
recommendations and said a review would be conducted to consider legal,
policy and operational issues relating to interrogations of detainees
held by the U.S. military in the war on terrorism. Rumsfeld's decision was prompted at least in part by objections raised
by some military lawyers who felt that the techniques might go too far,
officials said earlier this year. The review was completed in April 2003, and on that basis Rumsfeld reissued
his guidance on April 16, 2003. He approved 24 interrogation techniques,
to be used in a manner consistent with the Geneva Conventions, but said
that any use of four of those methods would have to be approved by him
in advance: the use of rewards or removal of privileges; attacking or
insulting the ego of a detainee; alternating the use of friendly and harsh
interrogators, and isolation. The April 2003 review said that removing a detainees' clothing would
raise legal issues because it could be construed as degrading, which is
against the international convention on torture. The removal of clothing,
approved by Rumsfeld for use at Guantanamo Bay in late 2002, was not among
the authorized techniques in his revised guidelines issued in April 2003.
At the Justice Department, senior officials said that the 50-page memo
issued to the White House on Aug. 1, 2002, would be repudiated and replaced.
The memo, signed by former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, included
lengthy sections that appeared to justify use of torture in the war on
terrorism and it contended that U.S. personnel could be immune from prosecution
for torture. The memo also argued that the president's powers as commander
in chief allow him to override U.S. laws and international treaties banning
torture. Critics on Capitol Hill and elsewhere have said that memo provided the
legal underpinnings for subsequent abuses of prisoners in Afghanistan
and Iraq. Reacting to the White House release, Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the
senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee , accused the administration
of continuing to withhold information. "Though this is a self-serving selection, at least it is a beginning,"
Leahy said. "But for the Judiciary Committee and the Senate to find
the whole truth, we will need much more cooperation and extensive hearings."
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