CNN.com - Powell aide: Torture 'guidance' from VP - Nov 20, 2005

CNN.com - Powell aide: Torture 'guidance' from VP - Nov 20, 2005:

"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A former top State Department official said Sunday that Vice President Dick Cheney provided the 'philosophical guidance' and 'flexibility' that led to the torture of detainees in U.S. facilities.

Retired U.S. Army Col. Larry Wilkerson, who served as former Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff, told CNN that the practice of torture may be continuing in U.S.-run facilities.

'There's no question in my mind that we did. There's no question in my mind that we may be still doing it,' Wilkerson said on CNN's 'Late Edition.'

'There's no question in my mind where the philosophical guidance and the flexibility in order to do so originated -- in the vice president of the United States' office,' he said. 'His implementer in this case was [Defense Secretary] Donald Rumsfeld and the Defense Department.'

At another point in the interview, Wilkerson said 'the vice president had to cover this in order for it to happen and in order for Secretary Rumsfeld to feel as though he had freedom of action.'

Traveling in Latin America earlier this month, President Bush defended U.S. treatment of prisoners, saying flatly, 'We do not torture.' (Full story)

Cheney has lobbied against a measure in Congress that would outlaw 'cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment' of prisoners, calling for an exception for the CIA in cases that involve a detainee who may have knowledge of an imminent attack."