Officials may create “redundant” torture rule to appease public
Officials have insisted that detention rules for terror suspects already prohibit torture, but the military may create a formal rule to “elimidate any doubt from people’s minds.”
The Defense Department is considering a formal rule prohibiting the introduction of evidence obtained through torture at military tribunals for terror suspects detained at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday.
At present, the introduction of evidence gained through torture is not expressly prohibited, although military prosecutors have said that such evidence would not be permitted.
While Pentagon and military officials insist that the rules for detention of terror suspects at Guantánamo already bar torture, lawyers for some detainees have said that some of the more extreme interrogation measures are tantamount to torture.
“We have not, to this point, believed that a specific commission rule was necessary, and in fact to some degree would erroneously suggest that torture had actually occurred,” said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman.
At a morning meeting with reporters, Mr. Whitman said the Defense Department had decided to consider a “formal instruction” banning evidence gathered through torture, to “eliminate any doubt from people’s minds.”
nytimes
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