Thursday, January 27, 2005
Gonzales: Torture convention doesn't apply overseas
Torture Treaty Doesn't Bar 'Cruel, Inhuman' Tactics, Gonzales Says
By Frank Davies (26 Jan
2005, Knight Ridder)
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.
[...]
But he drew a distinction between U.S. anti-torture statutes and the international Convention Against Torture, which calls on nations to prevent acts of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" that may fall short of torture.
When the Senate ratified
the treaty, it defined such treatment as violations of the Fifth,
Eighth and 14th Amendments. Because of that provision, Gonzales
said, the Justice Department decided that the convention applies
only to actions under U.S. jurisdiction, not "treatment with
respect to aliens overseas."
full article
- "Senate Panel Approves Gonzales on a Party-Line Vote," by Eric Lichtblau (26 Jan 2005, NYT)
- US Senate
- Center for Constitutional Rights