Bush involved in torture plot

A leaked letter shows that the US Justice Department, backed by president Bush, illegally tried to circumvent the Geneva Conventions ban on torture.

The Geneva Conventions ban "outrages upon personal dignity" but the Benczkowski letter implies interrogation methods should be weighed against the threat to national security by considering the Geneva Conventions on a "sliding scale," The Washington Post said Sunday.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Justice Department sought to expand the legal boundaries of harsh interrogation tactics against alleged terrorist suspects, a letter indicates.

"The fact that an act is undertaken to prevent a threatened terrorist attack, rather than for the purpose of humiliation or abuse, would be relevant to a reasonable observer in measuring the outrageousness of the act," said Brian A. Benczkowski, a deputy assistant attorney general, said in a letter obtained by The New York Times.

Staff from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee leaked the letter to the press in seeking more information from the Justice Department.

The Geneva Conventions ban "outrages upon personal dignity" but the Benczkowski letter implies interrogation methods should be weighed against the threat to national security by considering the Geneva Conventions on a "sliding scale," The Washington Post said Sunday.

U.S. President George Bush signed an executive order in 2007 outlining new guidelines for interrogations, but while it bans practices such as sexual degradation, it does not specify what techniques are permissible.

Lawmakers passed a measure last year that restricted interrogation methods further, but Bush vetoed the bill arguing harsh interrogation tactics thwarted several undisclosed terrorist attacks.