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Friday, Jun 25, 2004

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International

Bush memos reveal thinking on torture

By Suzanne Goldenberg— Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

WASHINGTON, JUNE 24. The Bush administration's thinking on the use of torture in the war on terror was on display yesterday after the White House released a file of documents on the treatment of detenus.

The memos, which date from February 2002 to the beginning of the Iraq occupation in April 2003, offer a glimpse of the decision-making process at the highest levels of the Pentagon, the Department of Justice and the White House.

Their release was intended to blunt demands from Senate committees investigating the Abu Ghraib scandal for a fuller disclosure on how the administration sets the rules for detention and interrogation in the war of terror.

Instead, the administration yesterday stood accused of raising more questions than it laid to rest, with key Democratic figures and human rights activists noting that none of the documents specifically apply to treatment of detenus in Iraq.

Questions were also raised on the role of the U.S. President, George Bush, following the release of a secret order he signed in February 2002. In the order, Mr. Bush reserves the right to suspend the Geneva Convention on treatment of detenus at any time.

``I accept the legal conclusion of the Attorney-General and the Department of Justice that I have the authority to suspend Geneva (conventions) as between the U.S. and Afghanistan,'' Mr. Bush writes. ``I reserve the right to exercise this authority in this or future conflicts.'' Mr. Bush also calls for the humane treatment of detenus. Other significant documents released list methods for extracting information that were approved by the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, for use on prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

A November 27 2002 memo explicitly sanctions measures outlawed under the Geneva Convention such as the use of dogs, stripping or hooding prisoners, and stress positions such as forcing detainees to stand for up to four hours.

It includes an acerbic comment from Mr. Rumsfeld, who uses a lectern as his desk: ``I stand for eight-10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to four hours?'' Soon Mr. Rumsfeld appeared to have changed his mind. Less than two months later, on January 15 2003, he rescinded approval for those methods, and set up a Pentagon panel to set rules for interrogation. There was no explanation for the reversal in the memos released by the White House.

Administration critics yesterday said the documents fell far short of the disclosure demanded by the Senate.

Patrick Leahy, the senior Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee which had been thwarted in demands for 23 such memos, dismissed the release as a ``self-serving selection'' of documents. ``The stonewalling in the prison abuse scandal has been building to a crisis point,'' he said.

Officials yesterday tried to distance the White House from the memo, saying it would be rewritten. But its author was appointed as a federal judge in Nevada last year. P>

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