[Peace-discuss] Bush dodge covered as a dodge

[Ricky Baldwin]

[It's maddening to see this going on, but what's
heartening to me is to see reporters actually calling
Bush on this nonsense - at least sometimes. - Ricky]

Bush Sidesteps Question About Torture
6-11-04
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON - The State Department warned the White
House two years ago that rejecting international
standards against torture when dealing with detainees
could put U.S. troops at risk.

A department memo from Feb. 2, 2002, surfaced Thursday
as President Bush said he ordered U.S. officials to
follow the law while interrogating suspected
terrorists. Bush sidestepped an opportunity to
denounce the use of torture. 

"What I've authorized is that we stay within U.S.
law," Bush told reporters at the close of the G-8
summit in Georgia.
 
Asked whether 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." 

The memo followed recommendations from the Justice
Department advising the president he could suspend
international treaties prohibiting torture. It warned
that failing to apply the Geneva Conventions to
detainees from the war in Afghanistan — whether
al-Qaida or Taliban — would put U.S. 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 the
protection of the convention in the event they are
captured," State Department legal adviser William H.
Taft IV wrote in the 2002 memo to presidential
counsel. 

Furthermore, refusing Geneva standards to detainees
"weakens protections afforded by the conventions to
our troops in future conflicts," Taft wrote. The
Associated Press obtained a copy of the memo. 

The Justice Department also told the White House that
U.S. laws against torture do not apply to the fight
against terrorism. The department memos say torture
"may be justified" against al-Qaida detainees in U.S.
custody abroad and laws and treaties barring torture
could be trumped by the president's supreme authority
to act as necessary in wartime. 

Bush said Thursday he does not recall seeing any of
the Justice Department advice. 
Democrats say that by suggesting that Bush could
legally authorize torture, the memos would have lain
the legal foundation for Iraqi prisoner abuses at Abu
Ghraib prison. 

In its 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-Qaida terrorists. 

The Bush administration has said that even though it
does not believe the Geneva Conventions apply to
prisoners in the war on terror, it has complied with
the treaty's guidelines. 




	
		
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