US Secretary of State Rice defends torture at Google event

Rices statement, the most extensive she has ever made on the issue of torture, followed the release earlier this week of a Department of Justice Inspector Generals report that included detailed accounts by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation who objected to sickening forms of torture that were inflicted on detainees at the US prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The nature of these so-called enhanced interrogation techniques was made clear by the agents, creating what they called a war crimes file in which these reports were compiled.

Also included in the report was the revelation that senior Justice Department officials communicated the concerns raised by the FBI agents directly to Rice, who was then Bushs national security adviser, along with the warning that the brutal practices at Guantánamo were gravely damaging...the rule of law.