Torture treaty doesn't bar `cruel, inhuman' tactics, Gonzales says
By Frank Davies
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Alberto Gonzales has asserted to the Senate committee weighing his nomination to be attorney general that there's a legal rationale for harsh treatment of foreign prisoners by U.S. forces.
In more than 200 pages of written responses to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who plan to vote Wednesday on his nomination, Gonzales told senators that laws and treaties prohibit torture by any U.S. agent without exception.
But he said the Convention Against Torture treaty, as ratified by the Senate, doesn't prohibit the use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading" tactics on non-U.S. citizens who are captured abroad, in Iraq or elsewhere.
Gonzales, White House counsel and a close Bush adviser, described recent reports of prisoner abuse as "shocking and deeply troubling." But he refused to answer questions from senators about whether interrogation tactics witnessed by FBI agents were unlawful.
He warned that any public discussion about interrogation tactics would help al-Qaida terrorists by giving them "a road map" of what to expect when captured.
As someone commented on DailyKos...
Un-bloody-believable.Newsflash: they already know what to expect when captured.
Solitary confinement: check.
Yep, I'd say the terrorists already have the "road map", and apparently, like the Bush administration, they don't give a shit about it either.
Electrodes to testicles: check.
Attack dogs: check.
Black hood: check.
Naked pyramids: check.
Sleep depravation: check.
Drugs: check.
Mental torture: check.
Physical torture: check.
Driven to suicide: check.
No rights: check.
