President Bush Confirms Approval of Harsh Interrogation Tactics

By Gabrielle Meury
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

President Bush has repeatedly denied that the administration condones torture. However, emerging evidence has shown that Bush’s definition of torture contradicts the Geneva convention as well as other international human rights conventions.

The ACLU released an FBI email in December of 2004 after obtaining it through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The email is dated May 22, 2004, and discussed the abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib and sought guidance on whether FBI agents in Iraq were obligated to report the US military’s harsh interrogation of inmates when that treatment violated FBI standards but fit within the guidelines of a presidential Executive Order. According to the email, Bush’s Executive Order authorized interrogators to use military dogs, “stress positions,” sleep “management,” loud music and “sensory deprivation though the use of hoods, ect.” to extract information from detainees in Iraq. This email is validated by news reports last week that senior White House officials, including Dick Cheney and then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, met secretly to discuss specific interrogation methods to be used against detainees.

ABC news reported that these top advisers signed off on how the CIA could interrogation top al-Qaeda suspects. On April 18, 2008, Bush confirmed the report, stating, “I’m aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved.”

In reaction to Bush’s comment, the ACLU requested that Congress appoint a special prosecutor to investigate whether the President and other officials broker federal and international laws, “including the War Crimes Act, the federal Anti-Torture Act, and federal assault laws.” Anthony Romero, the ACLU’s executive director, said the fact that President Bush admitted he approved of high-level meetings so members of his Cabinet could brainstorm about brutal interrogation methods confirms the worst fears. “We have always known that the CIA’s use of torture was approved from the very top levels of the U.S. government, it is a very sad day when the President of the United States subverts the Constitution, the rule of law, and the American values of justice.”

For more information, please see:

ACLU- FBI email- 22 May 2004                           

Middle East Online- Bush’s Torture Quote Undercuts Denial- 18 April 2008                  

Baltimore Chronicle- Bush’s Torture Quote Undercuts Denial- 15 April 2008

Aljazeera Magazine- Bush’s Torture Quote Undercuts Denial- 24 April 2008