Torture is "self-defense" according to the Pentagon

Julien — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 19:41:48 +0200

In 2003 the U.S. Justice Department sent a memo to the Pentagon in which it conceived torture as a "self-defense" for the purpose of interrogating an "enemy combatant". An Iraqi deputy and a French colonel specialised in the Algerian war react to the document, declassified yesterday and published here in full.

Written by a lawyer for the Justice Department, the memorandum basically said that the American president is entitled by the Constitution to authorise certain forms of torture against al-Qaeda militants for reasons of national security. The Justice nullified the statement nine months after it was sent. But according to the Washington Post, the article served as the "legal foundation for the Defense Department's use of aggressive interrogation practices at a crucial time, as captives poured into military jails from Afghanistan".

Guantanamo

Torture is "self-defense" according to the Pentagon