Bush Avoids Question On Justifying Torture

This is the title of the Knight-Ridder dispatch from the G8 clusterfuck. I can’t really improve on it… Meanwhile, Orrin Hatch says revealing that the US tortures prisoners apparently endangers US troops. Obviously not actually torturing people in the first place has not occurred to him.

Bush also said he couldnt remember whether hed seen an advisory memo by a top Department of Justice official that said torture was sometimes legally permissible … Asked whether torture was ever justified, Bush was vague. “The instructions went out to our people to adhere to law. That ought to comfort you,” Bush said. “Were a nation of law. We adhere to laws. We have laws on the books. You might look at those laws, and that might provide comfort for you.” … Apparently recognizing that the scandal goes beyond six rogue military police officers and might involve senior officials, the head of U.S. coalition forces in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, asked to be recused from the investigation so he could be questioned in connection with it … Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, stood solidly behind the administration, saying the release of the memos would “cause the deaths of our young people … by publicizing something that shouldnt be publicized.”

Earlier here.

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