Amnesty Int'l: Waterboarding is never acceptable regardless of the circumstances

News reports yesterday revealed that CIA Director Michael Hayden had admitted to waterboarding terror suspects.

As if to make it seem OK, he said that it had only been used on three people, and not for the past five years.

In response, Larry Cox, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, issued the following statement:

General Hayden's justification that waterboarding of three detainees was permissible because at the time it took place, authorities had limited knowledge of al Qaeda is absurd at best. Ignorance or lack of knowledge is not an excuse for torture. The legal prohibition on torture is absolute, period -- there are no exceptions.

An official admission that the United States engaged in waterboarding does not lessen the seriousness of U.S. authorities' involvement in the crime of torture (despite Attorney General Michael Mukasey's confusion) under U.S. and international law.

The assertion by Bush administration officials that the U.S. government does not engage in torture is as credible as President Bush declaring there are WMD in Iraq. This administration's consistent efforts to obscure the reality of its war on terror policies make it difficult to accept statements that such torture is no longer acceptable.

Indeed.