U.S. Justice Department memo on torture sets dangerous precedent, Libertarians say

WASHINGTON, DC -- A secret legal opinion by the Justice Department that reportedly justifies torture should be repudiated by the U.S. government before it backfires on U.S. troops or civilians overseas, Libertarians say.

“Iraqis can torture Americans just as easily as Americans can torture Iraqis,” said Joseph Seehusen, Libertarian Party executive director. “Not only is the U.S. government’s rationale for torturing prisoners uncivilized and un-American, it could have a dangerous boomerang effect on the very people President Bush claims he’s trying to protect.”

In an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Attorney General John Ashcroft refused to release 2002 Justice Department memos on interrogation techniques being used at U.S. prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. But according to documents that have been leaked to the press, the department’s lawyers say that a wartime president is not bound by anti-torture laws or treaties, and that inflicting physical and psychological pain might be justified during enemy interrogations.

Of course there’s no legal or moral justification for torture, Libertarians say, which is why the U.S. government should repudiate the Justice Department’s legal opinion.

But Bush and Ashcroft seem to have overlooked a dangerous and immediate consequence of “reinterpreting” anti-torture statutes: The same rationale could be used by foreign governments against U.S. military personnel, as well as American civilians traveling and working overseas.

“The U.S. government has signed international treaties banning torture not just to protect foreign troops, but also to protect American troops when they’re captured,” Seehusen said. “It’s in America’s self-interest to abide by these laws. Flouting these standards gives tyrants and dictators around the world the green light to do the same.”

Unfortunately, U.S. troops have already been captured in Iraq, and may be captured again, Seehusen observed.

“Imagine opening your morning newspaper and seeing a photo of a captured U.S. soldier wearing a black hood while being forced to stand on a box with electrodes attached to his body,” Seehusen said. “Or imagine photos of naked American men and women being piled on top of each other for the amusement of prison guards, or lying naked on the floor wearing only a dog leash held by a smiling Iraqi soldier.

“The American public would be justifiably outraged, and would demand that the enemy troops be brought before a war crimes tribunal.”

Yet under the Bush administration’s “reinterpretation” of anti-torture laws, such a prosecution might be impossible, he noted.

“No civilized person wants to see such brutal, thuggish behavior go unpunished,” Seehusen said. “Yet that’s exactly what could happen if George Bush insists that wartime presidents have the power to exempt themselves from anti-torture laws.”

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