Torturous Logic
May 9th, 2006 at 7:09 am by Susie
You’ll notice they’re not mentioning the civilian contractors hired for that specific purpose:
GENEVA - The U.S. government told a U.N. watchdog Monday that all American officials — including intelligence agents — are barred from using torture in interrogating terror suspects and other prisoners.
American officials acknowledged, however, that there had been past mistreatment of detainees, and members of the U.N. panel expressed concern about how the United States defines torture as well as the U.S. delegation’s refusal to give details about interrogation techniques used by the CIA. [...]
Nora Sveaass, an expert from Norway, said the U.N. committee had seen U.S. documents that allowed techniques regarded as torture by human rights groups, such as forced nakedness, stressful positions and threats.
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Charles Stimson conceded to the panel — the U.N. watchdog for the 1984 anti-torture treaty — that the United States had failed to protect detainees in Iraq.
