U.N. Official: U.S. Waterboarding is 'Unjustifiable'
Story summary:
The United Nations' torture investigator criticized the White House yesterday for defending the use of waterboarding and urged the United States to give up its defense of "unjustifiable" interrogation methods. The comments from Manfred Nowak, the United Nations' special rapporteur on torture, came a day after the Bush administration acknowledged publicly for the first time that waterboarding was used by U.S. government questioners on three terror suspects. Testifying before Congress, CIA Director Michael Hayden said the suspects were waterboarded in 2002 and 2003. "This is absolutely unacceptable under international human-rights law," Nowak said. "Time has come that the government will actually acknowledge that they did something wrong and not continue trying to justify what is unjustifiable."
U.N. Official: U.S. Waterboarding is 'Unjustifiable'
The United Nations' torture investigator criticized the White House yesterday for defending the use of waterboarding and urged the United States to give up its defense of "unjustifiable" interrogation methods.
The comments from Manfred Nowak, the United Nations' special rapporteur on torture, came a day after the Bush administration acknowledged publicly for the first time that waterboarding was used by U.S. government questioners on three terror suspects.
Testifying before Congress, CIA Director Michael Hayden said the suspects were waterboarded in 2002 and 2003.
"This is absolutely unacceptable under international human-rights law," Nowak said. "Time has come that the government will actually acknowledge that they did something wrong and not continue trying to justify what is unjustifiable."
The White House again yesterday defended the use of waterboarding. White House deputy spokesman Tony Fratto said it was legal - not torture, as critics argue - and had saved American lives.
Waterboarding involves strapping a suspect down and pouring water over his cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning. It has been traced back hundreds of years, to the Spanish Inquisition, and is condemned by nations around the world.
Hayden banned the technique in 2006 for CIA interrogations and the Pentagon has banned its employees from using it. FBI Director Robert S. Mueller said his investigators do not use coercive tactics in interviewing terror suspects.
Fratto said yesterday that CIA interrogators could use waterboarding again, if they had the president's approval.
He said that approval would depend on the circumstances, with one important factor being "belief that an attack might be imminent." Appropriate members of Congress would be notified in such a case, he said.
Critics say waterboarding has been outlawed under the U.N. Convention Against Torture, which prohibits treatment resulting in long-term physical or mental damage.
They also say it should be recognized as banned under the U.S. 2006 Military Commissions Act, which prohibits treatment of terror suspects that is described as "cruel, inhuman and degrading." The act does not explicitly prohibit waterboarding.
