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Spurned By Negative Media
Attention, Ashcroft Now Keeping His Mouth Shut On Waterboarding
Think
Progress
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
As ThinkProgress has repeatedly highlighted, former attorney
general John Ashcroft likes to dismiss the seriousness of
the Bush administration’s harsh interrogation techniques
when he’s out of Washington and the public glare.
For example, speaking at the University of Colorado in November
2007, Ashcroft caused an uproar when he said Guantanamo Bay
was a “good place” for detainees. He also claimed
that he would be willing to be waterboarded. More recently,
on April 21, Ashcroft joked about waterboarding to an audience
at St. John’s University:
Going to a high school dance, having to listen
to loud music, to me that’s torture. I was on the Daily
Show once. I was interviewed by Jon Stewart. That was torture.
(Article continues below)
Spurned by all the negative media attention, Ashcroft is
now keeping his mouth shut. At an event yesterday at Denison
University in Ohio, Ashcroft refused to discuss waterboarding
and made only vague statements about torture, tempering his
usually aggressive support for Bush’s policies:
Questioned by Green and another student about approving
the use of “waterboarding” by the CIA for interrogation
of prisoners, Ashcroft, a former Missouri U.S. senator,
said, “I haven’t made a statement about waterboarding.
I didn’t make one at Knox College (where he spoke
last week) and I’m not going to make it here.”
[…]
On torture, Ashcroft said, “Torture,
for legal purposes, is what Congress says it is. Within the
law there are times when there will be different interrogation
techniques used. Various interrogation techniques make sense.
Torture is not legal in the United States, as defined by Congress.
Ashcroft now faces a subpoena threat from House Judiciary Committee
chairman John Conyers (D-MI) to testify about his role in the
administration’s approval of torture.
Once student also asked Ashcroft how he sleeps at night, in
light of some of the policies he has supported. “I sleep
at night because I believe the protection of American liberty
is the number one job we have,” replied Ashcroft.
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