President George Bush said on Friday that the United States does not use torture during interrogations, amid renewed debate about his administration’s methods in the war on terror.
”This government does not torture people. We stick to US law and our international obligations,” Bush said.
But he defended his ”war on terror”, launched in the wake of the September 11 2001 attacks and the secret, controversial policy of detaining and interrogating suspects.
”I have put this programme in place for a reason and that is to better protect the American people, and when we find somebody who may have information regarding a potential attack on America, you bet we’re gonna detain him and you bet we’re gonna question him,” he added.
The New York Times on Thursday alleged that since 2005 a US Justice Department document has authorised and justified the use of violent techniques in interrogations of war-on-terror suspects.
The legal department document was circulated in 2005, the same year Congress adopted a law banning cruel inhumane and degrading treatment, the Times said.
”The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided explicit authorisation to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures,” the Times reported.
But Bush said highly trained professionals were used to question ”these extremists and the terrorists”.
”We have got professionals who have trained in this kind of work to get information that will protect the American people.”
White House Homeland Security Adviser Fran Townsend told CNN on Thursday that the programme involved a team of fewer than 100 highly trained interrogators.
”We start with the least harsh measures first,” Townsend told CNN television. ”It stops … if someone becomes cooperative.”
She said the White House was ”baffled” by suggestions that if the US government didn’t use harsh interrogation tactics, al-Qaeda would treat captured Americans better.
And she suggested the harsh interrogation techniques had support and understanding of the American public.
”If Americans are killed because we failed to do the hard things, the American people would have the absolute right to ask us why,” Townsend said. — AFP
