DOES the Bush administration sanction torture? Appalled
Democratic members of Congress say it does, after the leak of
confidential government memos providing legal justification for
the use of torture in interrogating terror suspects. The
documents, drawn up by Defence and Justice Department lawyers in
2002 and 2003, suggest that the president's “inherent
constitutional authority to manage a military campaign”
overrides any international conventions or domestic laws that
prohibit the use of torture.  At a hearing of the Senate
Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Senator Edward Kennedy lashed
out furiously at John Ashcroft, the attorney-general,
challenging him to produce the memos. Mr Ashcroft refused,
saying that it was not good policy openly to debate presidential
powers in wartime. He repeated the administration's claim that
it was opposed to all torture.  Another Democratic senator,
Joseph Biden from Delaware, demanded that Mr Ashcroft say
whether he believed torture was ever justified. When the
attorney-gene