Attorney General John Ashcroft gave testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday and "insisted that the Bush administration does not condone torture, even of al-Qaida terrorist suspects." Of course this flies in the face of the reports and photographs coming out of Abu Ghraib, not to mention the White House memo reported in the Wall Street Journal on Monday.
“We now know that at the highest levels of the Pentagon there was a shocking interest in using torture and a misguided attempt to evade the criminal consequences of doing so,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “If anyone still thinks the abuses at Abu Ghraib were only dreamed up by a handful of privates and sergeants, this memo should put that myth to rest.”Finally some Democrats are starting to hold the Bush administration accountable for their criminal behavior.
Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., his voice booming, suggested that American military personnel could be in greater danger of torture because of the U.S. mistreatment.Ashcroft is aware of those considerations? Could have fooled me.
"That's why we have these treaties. So when Americans are captured, they are not tortured. That's the reason, in case anybody forgets it," said Biden, noting that his son, Beau, is in training for the Delaware National Guard's judge advocate general office.
Glaring back at the committee, Ashcroft responded that his son, Andy, recently returned from duty in the Persian Gulf aboard a Navy destroyer, the USS McFaul, and is scheduled to return there soon.
"Well, as a person whose son is in the military now on active duty and has been in the Gulf within the last several months, I'm aware of those considerations," he said.