US torture might come ‘from the top’

WASHINGTON – Democratic senators say Justice Department memos contending that a wartime president is not bound by anti-torture principles could have laid the legal groundwork for the prisoner abuses that took place in Iraq and elsewhere.

“They appear to be an effort to redefine torture and narrow the prohibitions against it,” Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday. Attorney General John Ashcroft, the only witness at the hearing, told the senators that the Bush administration does not condone torture and that the Justice Department will vigorously investigate those accused of it who are outside military jurisdiction.”This administration rejects torture,” Ashcroft said.Later, he added: “I don’t think it’s productive, let alone justified.”Still, the attorney general refused to give the committee copies of department memos written in 2002 that Democratic senators said could have laid legal groundwork for abuses that occurred at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison and elsewhere in the war on terror.”I do believe the president has the right to have legal advice from his attorney general and not have that revealed to the whole world,” said Ashcroft.Yet the administration was not invoking executive privilege claims to protect the documents, he said.One of the memos, cited in a March 2003 Pentagon policy paper, stated that the president’s broad wartime national security authority may override anti-torture laws and treaties, including the Geneva Conventions, in certain circumstances.Waving photos of abused prisoners in Iraq, Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy said: “We know when we have these kinds of orders what happens: We get the stress test, we get the use of dogs, we get the forced nakedness that we’ve all seen, and we get the hooding,” Kennedy said.- Nampa-APAttorney General John Ashcroft, the only witness at the hearing, told the senators that the Bush administration does not condone torture and that the Justice Department will vigorously investigate those accused of it who are outside military jurisdiction.”This administration rejects torture,” Ashcroft said.Later, he added: “I don’t think it’s productive, let alone justified.”Still, the attorney general refused to give the committee copies of department memos written in 2002 that Democratic senators said could have laid legal groundwork for abuses that occurred at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison and elsewhere in the war on terror.”I do believe the president has the right to have legal advice from his attorney general and not have that revealed to the whole world,” said Ashcroft.Yet the administration was not invoking executive privilege claims to protect the documents, he said.One of the memos, cited in a March 2003 Pentagon policy paper, stated that the president’s broad wartime national security authority may override anti-torture laws and treaties, including the Geneva Conventions, in certain circumstances.Waving photos of abused prisoners in Iraq, Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy said: “We know when we have these kinds of orders what happens: We get the stress test, we get the use of dogs, we get the forced nakedness that we’ve all seen, and we get the hooding,” Kennedy said.- Nampa-AP