Bush Administration Memos on Torture Policy Reveal Official Complicity in Abuse of Iraqi Prisoners

Interview with Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, conducted by Scott Harris

As the investigation into the torture and sexual humiliation of Iraqi detainees held at Abu Ghraib and other U.S.-run prisons continues, a series of memos have been disclosed which reveal that Justice Department and White House lawyers had in essence authorized such abuse.

A January 2002 Justice Department memo argues that U.S. officials could not be charged with war crimes for the abuse of prisoners because the Geneva Conventions did not apply to detainees held in the war in Afghanistan. The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel wrote a memo in August 2002 which concluded that certain acts may be cruel, inhuman or degrading, but still not produce pain and suffering of the requisite intensity to fall within a ban on torture defined in international treaties and U.S. law. Another memo written in March 2003 by the Department of Defense asserted that as commander-in-chief, President Bush was not bound by any international treaties barring torture or by a U.S. federal anti-torture law. In addition to seven American soldiers charged with abusing detainees, four British troops will now be tried in a military court on allegations that they assaulted Iraqi prisoners and forced them to engage in sexual acts.

As the U.S. prepares for the June 30th symbolic transition to Iraqi sovereignty under a new interim government, violence has surged raising the death toll of American and coalition troops, private contractors and Iraqi police. Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, who discusses the significance of the Bush administration's memos on torture and summarizes a lawsuit his group has brought against two private security companies accused of torturing Iraqi prisoners in order to secure more Pentagon contracts.

Call the Center for Constitutional Rights at (212) 614-6464 or visit their website at www.ccr-ny.org. Michael Ratner is the author of "Guantanamo: What the World Should Know," published by Chelsea Green.

Related links:



"CCR Files Lawsuit Against Private Contractors For Torture Conspiracy: Charges U.S. corporations conspired with officials to torture detainees in Iraq," Center for Constitutional Rights, June 9, 2004

"Guantanamo: What the World Should Know," by Michael Ratner and Ellen Ray, AlterNet, June 11, 2004.

"Leaked Torture Memo: Full Text," Working Group Report On Detainee Interrogations in the Global War on Terrorism; Assessment of Legal, Historical, Policy, and Operational Considerations, March 2003; truthout.org feature

"Tout Torture, Get Promoted: Defending Cruelty Can Be a Career Booster in Bush's Administration," by Robert Scheer, by the Los Angeles Times, June 15, 2004

"Administration Lawyers Ascribed Broad Power to Bush on Torture," by David G. Savage and Richard B. Schmitt, Los Angeles Times, June 10, 2004

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