Psyche, Science, and Society

President Carter: Knows US tortures

October 11th, 2007

Former President Carter told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer he knows the US tortures:

Former president Jimmy Carter isn’t just suspicious that the US is using torture to extract intelligence from detainees — he’s absolutely convinced.

Asked by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer if, by Carter’s definition of the word, the United States had used torture during the Bush administration, the Nobel Peace Prize winner was adamant:

“I don’t think it, I know it,” he said. “Certainly.”

Pressed by Blitzer on whether that meant that President Bush was lying, Carter was equally clear.

“The president is self-defning what we have done and authorized in the torture of prisoners,” said Carter.”Yes.”

Earlier in the interview, Carter said Bush’s denial this week that the US did not in fact torture detainees was “not an accurate statement if you use the international norms of torture as has always been honored in the last 60 years, since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was promulgated.”

“But you can make your own definition of human rights and say we don’t violate them,” he added, “and you can make your own defintion of torture and say we don’t violate them.”

Entry Filed under: Interrogation, Politics, Torture, War Crimes