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In the case of torture, the definition is not completely agreed upon. While you and I may call something torture, a government, i.e., the one in the USA, may not. While many have long held that waterboarding is torture, the US Government, during the Bush Administration, officially stated it was not and directed government employees to behave as if it were not. Now, suppose the accused CIA employees were acting upon a similar instruction. Unfortunately, the wording of the treaty (particularly para 3), though it appears iron clad, potentially becomes full of holes when subjected to the law in local national jurisdictions.
Please understand, I'm not saying the CIA employees will be able to escape justice using this defense. I am only providing my layman's interpretation of the possible legal defense set forth in the interviews referenced. I know almost nothing about the cases that are being investigated. I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears
In the case of torture, the definition is not completely agreed upon. While you and I may call something torture, a government, i.e., the one in the USA, may not. While many have long held that waterboarding is torture, the US Government, during the Bush Administration, officially stated it was not and directed government employees to behave as if it were not.
I understand it is a possible legal defence, but I do not see how any government, even with the most cursory investigation of the history and legal precedent could say this with any sense of reality, and any departmental lawyer when handed this decision should have said to the people involved that the ruling was legaly dubious, rather than said "Well the department of justice says its ok, so lets go ahead" and should have cried off. The CIAs lawyers would have noted that the US government had declared waterboarding to be torture in the cases of German and Japanese members of their armed forces (Plus Norwegian and French police collaborators) in the aftermath of WWII, as a more recent example, a US sheriff and his associates had recieved ten years imprisonment for waterbording suspected criminals, from The Ronald Reagan Justice department. Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears
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