Gonzales: Torture treaty doesn't bar 'cruel, inhuman' tactics

[struggle4progress]

Posted on Tue, Jan. 25, 2005

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 ... (H)e 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 ... (H)e refused to answer questions from senators about whether interrogation tactics witnessed by FBI agents were unlawful ... Cal Jillson, a constitutional scholar who's followed the careers of Gonzales and Bush since they were in Texas, said Gonzales was following basic Bush administration policy: Don't admit mistakes or re-evaluate decisions ...

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/10732627.htm