Obama to United Nations Committee Against Torture: "We tortured some folks. We'll keep our options open to do that again and again."
The Obama administration, after an internal debate that has drawn global scrutiny, is taking the view that the cruelty ban applies wherever the United States exercises governmental authority, according to officials familiar with the deliberations. That definition, they said, includes the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and American-flagged ships and aircraft in international waters and airspace.
But the administration’s definition still appears to exclude places like the former “black site” prisons where the C.I.A. tortured terrorism suspects during the Bush years, as well as American military detention camps in Afghanistan and Iraq during the wars there. Those prisons were on the sovereign territory of other governments; the government of Cuba exercises no control over Guantánamo.
Obama says that the convention against torture does doesn't apply where torture by U.S. goons is most likely.
Is there anything which tells us that the Obama administration is not using this self-defined exclusion?
Complete story at - M of A - Obama Excludes "Black Sites" From Torture Prohibition
The Obama administration, after an internal debate that has drawn global scrutiny, is taking the view that the cruelty ban applies wherever the United States exercises governmental authority, according to officials familiar with the deliberations. That definition, they said, includes the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and American-flagged ships and aircraft in international waters and airspace.
But the administration’s definition still appears to exclude places like the former “black site” prisons where the C.I.A. tortured terrorism suspects during the Bush years, as well as American military detention camps in Afghanistan and Iraq during the wars there. Those prisons were on the sovereign territory of other governments; the government of Cuba exercises no control over Guantánamo.
Obama says that the convention against torture does doesn't apply where torture by U.S. goons is most likely.
Is there anything which tells us that the Obama administration is not using this self-defined exclusion?
Complete story at - M of A - Obama Excludes "Black Sites" From Torture Prohibition
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