When the President does it, that means that it's not illegal.- President Richard M. Nixon
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.
...the United States was told, we were told, nothing that violates our obligations under the Convention Against Torture. And so, by definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Conventions Against Torture.- Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
It still amazes me how the Bush Administration, which publicly decried the idea of a large and powerful Federal Government while simultaneously exploding the federal budget and enacting the Patriot Act was allowed nearly absolute power without oversight. I wouldn't want a president who I agreed with to wield that kind of power, and I certainly wouldn't want that power to go to somebody who would use it for torture.
