In Arrogant Defense of Torture

The White House is already complaining about reports that House and Senate conferees have come to an agreement on an intelligence measure mandating that all agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, comply with the Army Field Manual’s outlawing of torture. The manual properly reflects American law by explicitly proscribing the gamut of torture measures — including waterboarding — that have proved dear to the heart of administration zealots.

Waterboarding, in which interrogators subject suspects to the grisly conditions of simulated drowning, is illegal under both federal laws and international compacts, including the Geneva Conventions. But the administration has foolishly flouted these laws, which were adopted to protect American citizens captured overseas, as much as suspects captured by Americans, from barbaric abuse by interrogators.

The administration denies it has stooped to torture in intelligence gathering — despite its post-9/11 record of secret detention programs and rendition kidnappings that outsource interrogations to governments known to use torture. The Times reported last week that the C.I.A. destroyed hundreds of hours of videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Al Qaeda operatives. Congress must find out what was on those tapes and who is responsible for their destruction.

“The C.I.A. program has provided valuable, actionable intelligence,” a White House spokesman insisted, dismissing Congress’s Army Field Manual initiative as “dangerous and misguided.” The new attorney general, Michael Mukasey, twisted himself into knots during his confirmation hearing, refusing to say whether waterboarding was torture and therefore illegal. Small wonder that Congress feels obliged to require that all agencies follow the Army manual’s clear proscription of torture.

There is certainly merit in a Congressional debate. Lawmakers should demand that the White House and its allies explain why intelligence operatives should scoff at a ban on torture that soldiers swear to and is unquestionably the law of the land.