‘Values’ guided Bush torture ban

President Bush decided shortly after the September 11 attacks that terrorism detainees would be treated in accord with the Geneva Conventions, despite legal advice that this was not required, to adhere to “our values as a nation,” according to a memo he wrote himself.

The White House yesterday released a 2-inch-high stack of memos that outline the administration’s thoughts on dealing with an enemy that declares no country its home, wears no uniforms, and concentrates its attacks on civilians.

After months of deliberations, the administration decided to adhere strictly to the Geneva Conventions, despite their being optional in this case.

In a memo titled “Humane Treatment of al-Qaida and Taliban Detainees,” Mr. Bush says he accepts “the legal conclusion of the attorney general and the Department of Justice that I have the authority under the Constitution to suspend Geneva as between the United States and Afghanistan, but I decline to exercise that authority at this time.”

“Of course our values as a nation … call for us to treat detainees humanely, including those who are not legally entitled to such treatment,” he concluded in the Feb. 7, 2002, memo.

The administration, however, permitted interrogation techniques for detainees at Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that go beyond what is outlined as permissible in the Army Field Manual, but do not cross the line into torture.

“Let me make very clear the position of my government and our country. We do not condone torture,” Mr. Bush said yesterday before the memos were released. “I have never ordered torture. I will never order torture. The values of this country are such that torture is not a part of our soul and our being.”

The White House released the documents reluctantly, fearing that public disclosure of interrogation guidelines would make it easier for terrorism suspects to resist the techniques used to gain valuable intelligence.

But in the end — and especially in light of the abuses by U.S. troops at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison — it was deemed more important to knock down the belief of many in the world that the U.S. government practices torture.

“It was harmful to this country in terms of the notion that we may be engaged in torture,” said White House Counsel Al Gonzales.

The documents, and the briefing by senior administration officials after the release of the memos, shed little light on what happened in Abu Ghraib, but focuses more on how the rules of engagement were established for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

Included is a 50-page memo issued by the Justice Department on Aug. 1, 2002, that concluded that international conventions prohibit “only the most extreme acts” of torture.

Shortly after the White House released the documents, a senior Justice Department official told the Associated Press that his office is disavowing that 50-page memo and writing a new set of legal recommendations because the earlier memo had overly broad and irrelevant advice.

Mr. Gonzales suggested that revision matters little, because although many opinions about the use of torture were circulated, “the president put a policy in place more narrowly defined than directed by lawyers.”

“We are trying to defend the United States against an enemy we have never seen before,” Mr. Gonzales said. “As these documents show, [Mr. Bush] would do so in a way consistent with our values.”

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