# Torture revisited: Pentagon implies it's authorized by the President?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-revisited-pentagon-implies-its-authorized-by-the-president/249148>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [June 7, 2004, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-revisited-pentagon-implies-its-authorized-by-the-president/249148 "2004-06-07T18:49:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2004, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-revisited-pentagon-implies-its-authorized-by-the-president/249148/41 "2004-06-09T17:48:55Z")

</div>

For anyone who’s interested, here’s a link to the NPR story. The audio version has segments of Ashcroft’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee:

> **[Ashcroft Won't Discuss Torture](https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1950302)**
>
> Attorney General John Ashcroft refuses senators' demands for copies of legal memos, prepared by Bush administration lawyers in 2002 and 2003, that reportedly state the president has the right to order torture in his role as commander in chief....

This is my favorite part, from Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL)

> [@](#):
>
> Mr. Attourney General, with all due respect, your personal belief is not a law. And you are not citing a law, and you are not claiming executive privilege.  
> And frankly, that is what contempt of Congress is all about. You have to give us a specific legal authority which gives you the right to say no, or the President has to claim privilege. And you’ve done neither.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-revisited-pentagon-implies-its-authorized-by-the-president/249148.md?page=2)