NEW YORK, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- A human rights group criticized the Bush administration Tuesday for insisting no laws ban inhumane treatment in CIA interrogations.
"The Bush administration claims it rejects torture and inhumane treatment, but it continues to seek legal loopholes to permit abuse by U.S. interrogators," Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "This latest example of legal gymnastics shows once more that abuses by U.S. interrogators are the result of policy choices made at senior levels."
The group said White House counsel and Attorney General-nominee Alberto Gonzales claimed to the Senate the prohibition on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment -- in a treaty the United States ratified in 1994 -- does not apply to the treatment of non-citizens abroad.
While asserting that torture by all U.S. personnel was unlawful, Gonzales indicated that no law would prohibit the CIA from engaging in cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment when it interrogates non-Americans outside the United States, the group said.
