Pentagon Report: Bush Not Bound by Torture Restrictions
Update: Torture Memo Available Here.
The Wall Street Journal reports that it has reviewed a classified draft of a Pentagon report from 2003 in which the authors conclude that President Bush is not bound by laws prohibiting torture and that the Justice Department cannot prosecute U.S. soldiers or agents who engage in torture at his direction. If you don't have access to the Journal, you can read this Reuters account of the report.
One of the authors of the draft report is William Haynes, now awaiting confirmation as a federal judge.
According to Bush administration officials, the report was compiled by a working group appointed by the Defense Department's general counsel, William J. Haynes II. Air Force General Counsel Mary Walker headed the group, which comprised top civilian and uniformed lawyers from each military branch and consulted with the Justice Department, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Defense Intelligence Agency and other intelligence agencies. It isn't known if President Bush has ever seen the report.
Robert Dreyfuss at TomPaine.com has more.
....here’s how the Pentagon’s shysters split the torture hairs: "The infliction of pain or suffering, whether it is physical or mental, is insufficient to amount to torture,’ the report advises. Such suffering must be ‘severe,’ the lawyers advise, and they rely on a dictionary definition to suggest that it ‘must be of such a high level of intensity that the pain is difficult for the subject to endure.’
The report goes on to say that Congress has no business trying to regulate whether U.S. soldiers or other officials torture prisoners, since that would violate the commander-in-chief’s constitutional power to wage war. “Sometimes the greater good for society will be accompanied by violating the literal language of the criminal law,” says the report.
Intel Dump also covers the WSJ report.
Some quotes from the WSJ article:
< Terry Nichols' Jury is Out of Alternates | Alternative Views on Ronald Reagan > |