When the president approves it, it is not illegal??

When the president approves it, it is not illegal. This is a claim recently made by former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, when asked about waterboarding and torture by a student from Stanford University. What started as a friendly exchange, turned heated, when the student asked Rice about a new Senate Intelligence Committee report which authorized the CIA, under her authroity, to use waterboarding in July 2002.

Rice responded by saying, “The president instructed us that nothing we would do would be outside of our obligations, legal obligations, under the Convention Against torture. So that's -- and by the way, I didn't authorize anything. I conveyed the authorization of the administration to the agency. That they had policy authorization subject to the Justice Department's clearance. That's what I did.”

“By definition,” she repeated, “if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Convention Against Torture.”

Is Condoleezza Rice correct in her claim??

Well not according to the International Convention on Toture, which is the law of the land, and which does not recognize legal opinions or orders of superiors as defenses against torture.

"Article 2.2 - No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture."

Ironicially, when she was challenged on her justification, her response was uncannily close to Richard Nixon’s infamous claim, “When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.” A claim which the Supreme Court, in United States v. Nixon rejected, which held that no President has absolute, unqualified executive privilege.

While Condoleezza Rice may believe that the President has unchecked and absolutely authority. That his word is law, and therefore anything he authorizes is legal, the reality is that in our system of government, the president is not above the law. Condoleezza Rice may need to look up the word dictatorship, for the President word is NOT law. The president can violate the law and when he does, he is supposed to be held accountable. That is a democracy, and we would do well to remember that.

(Photo Courtesy of CNN)