Memos arguing that President Bush could legally order the torture of terror suspects send an appalling message
I magine a foreign leader deciding the torture of captured American soldiers or civilians -- so long as it stopped short of causing "organ failure" -- was justified to protect his country's security.
Americans would be outraged. Yet lawyers in the Justice Department claimed in secret memoranda that President Bush's role as commander in chief allows him to order any action to defend the nation, including torture. "Torture may be justified," the lawyers wrote in an August 2002 memo.
That immoral stance sends a terrible message to the rest of the world.
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