We Didn’t Torture, Ex-AG John Ashcroft Tells House Panel

Constitutional Law

We Didn’t Torture, Ex-AG John Ashcroft Tells House Panel

Posted Jul 17, 2008, 04:53 pm CDT
By Martha Neil

In a House Judiciary Committee hearing today, former Attorney General John Ashcroft disavowed the reasoning behind controversial legal memos created by Department of Justice attorneys that critics say justified torture of terrorism suspects.

But, in the ninth hearing on the tactics the U.S. used, after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, to get information from suspects in such cases, Ashcroft did not say that the methods used went too far, reports the Associated Press.

On the contrary, he defended waterboarding--a near-drowning experience dating back to the Spanish Inquisition that critics contend is torture--as a "very valuable" information-gathering technique, reports CNN.

While Ashcroft was still attorney general he withdrew the DOJ memos, which were written in part by John Yoo, a former deputy assistant attorney general. Yoo declined to comment on the hearing today, the AP notes.

"Republicans on the panel argued that waterboarding and other harsh tactics yielded information that may have saved lives, and Ashcroft did not disagree," the AP writes. "He also said he does not believe waterboarding or any of the methods allowed under the memos amounted to torture. Both the CIA and the Pentagon two years ago banned its interrogators from waterboarding suspects."

Additional coverage:

UPI: "Ashcroft: Waterboarding is Not Torture"

NPR (2007): "Waterboarding: A Tortured History"

ABAJournal.com: "White House Defends US Waterboarding; U.N. Official, Rights Groups: It’s Torture"

ABAJournal.com: "White House Rejected Clement to Lead Office of Legal Counsel, Backed Yoo"

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