ATTORNEY GENERAL - Most detainee abuse reports don't qualify as torture - MySA.com: AP Wire

MySA.com: AP Wire: "05/07/2005

Associated Press

Many of the accounts detailing abuse of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay by American military and civilian personnel don't meet the definition of torture, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said.

Gonzales, who grew up in Houston, said Congress requires proving that intentional infliction of severe physical and mental pain or suffering occurred to have a prosecutable case of torture.

'Congress intended a very high bar here in order to be prosecuted for engaging in torture,' he said Friday during a visit to Houston. 'There may be conduct that you may find offensive that falls far short of torture.'
....

Gonzales has been criticized for approving an August 2002 memo while he was White House counsel that said laws prohibiting torture do 'not apply to the president's detention and interrogation of enemy combatants.' The document also said 'injury such as death, organ failure, or serious impairment of body functions' must occur for an incident to qualify as torture.

A different memo written by Gonzales said the war against terrorism renders obsolete the Geneva Convention, which outlines the treatment that should be given to prisoners of war."