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Washington: The Pentagon has released a now-defunct legal memo that approved the use of harsh interrogation techniques against terror suspects on grounds that President George W. Bush's authority during wartime trumps any international ban on torture.
The Justice Department memo, dated March 14, 2003, outlines legal justification for military interrogators to use harsh tactics against Al Qaida and Taliban detainees overseas, so long as they did not specifically intend to torture their captives.
Even so, the memo noted, the president's wartime power as commander in chief would not be limited by the UN treaties against torture.
The memo, written by John Yoo, who was then deputy assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel, said, "Our previous opinions make clear that customary international law is not federal law and that the president is free to override it at his discretion."
The memo also offered a defence in case any interrogator was charged with violating US or international laws.
"Finally, even if the criminal prohibitions outlined above applied, and an interrogation method might violate those prohibitions, necessity or self-defence could provide justifications for any criminal liability," the memo concluded.
The memo was withdrawn in December 2003, a mere nine months after Yoo sent it to the Pentagon's top lawyer, William J. Haynes. Although its existence has been known for years, its release on Tuesday marked the first time its contents in full have been made public.
Haynes, the Defence Department's longest-serving general counsel, resigned in late February to return to the private sector. He has been hotly criticised for his role in crafting Bush administration policies for detaining and trying suspected terrorists that some argue led to prisoner abuses at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre.
Yoo's memo became part of a debate among the Pentagon's civilian and military leaders about what interrogation tactics to allow at overseas facilities and whether US troops might face legal problems domestically or in international courts.
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