The authorisation of to use torture has taken a step closer to Bush, as the
following extract from todays FT shows. The question for ulm is how does
this affect the deportation of Hamza? Can any terrorist (real or suspected)
be deported to the US in the light of the real and credible likelihood of
torture?

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentSe...012571727 085

American interrogators can legally violate a US ban on the use of torture
abroad as part of President George W.
Bush's fight against terrorism, US government lawyers have said.


The lawyers concluded in a draft report drawn up last year at the request of
senior military commanders overseeing prisoners at Guantanamo Bay that legal
statutes against torture could not override Mr Bush's inherent powers.

The revelations are bound to increase international concerns about how the
US has conducted its interrogation of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and in
Iraq and Afghanistan, and at what level any abuses may have been authorised.

They follow the publication of images of Iraqi prisoners being tortured at
Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad and charges against seven low-ranking US
soldiers, although no senior officers have yet accepted responsibility.

The report says US interrogators are free to use extreme techniques as long
as they are not "specifically intended" to cause "severe physical or mental
pain and suffering".

The conclusions were contained in a March, 2003 draft working group report.
The full report was classified as "secret" and "not for foreign" eyes by
Donald Rumsfeld, US secretary of defence. The Pentagon declined to comment
on Monday night.

Parts of the report were obtained by the US Center for Constitutional
Rights, ...
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See also:
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentSe...012571727 102