The US president doesn’t have to abide by international treaties and his own federal laws? Isn’t that sort of like saying the Pope doesn’t have to follow the ten commandments?
Posted by kuri at June 09, 2004 04:41 PMWASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush, as commander-in-chief, is not restricted by U.S. and international laws barring torture, Bush administration lawyers stated in a March 2003 memorandum.
The 56-page memo to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld cited the president’s “complete authority over the conduct of war,” overriding international treaties such as a global treaty banning torture, the Geneva Conventions and a U.S. federal law against torture.
“In order to respect the president’s inherent constitutional authority to manage a military campaign … (the prohibition against torture) must be construed as inapplicable to interrogations undertaken pursuant to his commander-in-chief authority,” stated the memo, obtained by Reuters on Tuesday.
Source: Reuters
There was once an American ideal where no one was above the law. (Remember Nixon’s resignation?) Of course, it didn’t always work in practice, but it was something to strive for.
Glad you decided to vote this year.
Posted by: M Sinclair Stevens on June 10, 2004 11:22 AMsince 1823 the year the monroe doktrin was issued-
the prime directive of u.s. foreign policy has been-
why does a dog lick it’s balls?
because it can.
sooner rather than later the world will
decide that it is time for a regime-change
in america.
This memo is part of a series of memos from the DOJ which gave legal opinions on exactly what can and cannot be done to coerce information out of terrorists and enemy combatants. These are not memos from the President authorizing the use of torture on these people, or setting a policy of any sort. To say anything more than that at this point is pure hyperbole.
Posted by: Bob on June 11, 2004 03:26 AM