Creating a Torture Culture

Question: Mr. President, I wanted to return to question of torture ... when you say that you want U.S. to adhere to international and U.S. laws, that's very comforting. This is a moral question: Is torture ever justified? President George W. Bush: Maybe I can be more clear. The instructions went out to our people to adhere to law. That ought to comfort We're a nation of law. We adhere to laws. We have laws on books. You might look at those laws, and that might provide comfort for those were instructions out ... from me to government. (1) I. INTRODUCTION Americans accept that United States tortured people in its war against terror and has sent others to places doing worse. (2) Moreover, United States admits to waterboarding suspects, (3) and a of Americans consider waterboarding a form of (4) The persistent skeptic will object that majority may be wrong. The White House denies use or sanction of any sort of torture and defends waterboarding saying, the programs have been reviewed, and Department of Justice has determined them to be (5) President Bush continues to deny use of torture saying: And whatever we have done is legal. That's what I'm saying. It's in law. We had lawyers look at it and say, 'Mr. President, this is lawful.' That's all I can tell you. (6) As late of 2005 President continued to assert authority to use waterboarding, claiming it to be lawful. (7) Moreover, President Bush continues to press for a worldwide ban on torture (8)--strong evidence that he sees no hypocrisy in U.S. position. Similarly, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has refused to characterize waterboarding as torture, insisting that the determination of whether interrogation techniques are consistent with our international obligations and American law are made by Justice Department. (9) Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld also deferred to legal interpretations while contending that United States has tortured. (10) Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey has said that because Justice Department approved program, it will open a criminal investigation into practice. (11) Vice President Dick Cheney states unequivocally, [t]he United States is a country that takes human rights seriously. We do torture--it's against our laws and against our values. (12) The Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), has conceded that waterboarding is no longer legal under current law (presumably because of Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 (DTA) (13) and Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA), (14) both of which came after last publicly known use of waterboarding). The OLC, however, maintains that President retains power to authorize waterboarding and other discontinued harsh techniques in special circumstances, such as when there is a 'belief that an attack might be imminent.' (15) The administration maintains that executive branch retains discretion to return to these practices. (16) According to administration views, neither courts nor legislature can check or constrain practice of waterboarding or any other practices that administration deems necessary in war on terror (17) and which it has unilateral power to declare as not amounting to (18) The administration uses a sliding scale to decide if a practice amounts to torture--the more necessary it deems potential information, less likely administration is to see a practice as torture. The idea is that a practice will constitute torture only if it shocks conscience (thus setting or moving line between torture and lesser standard of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment (CID), (19) based on whether a specific method shocks conscience). …