Reply #132: Here's the full quote [View All]

[Stephanie]

http://www.nydailynews.com/05-01-2006/news/col/bensmith/story/462068p-388764c.html

McCain team mocks Hil torture loophole

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) said she supports legalizing the torture of a captured terror suspect who knows about "an imminent threat to millions of Americans" - making an exception to her opposition to torture and marking a key difference from her possible rival for the White House, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

"If we're going to be preparing for the kind of improbable but possible eventuality, then it has to be done within the rule of law," Clinton said in a phone interview Friday, expanding on comments to the Daily News Editorial Board.

She said the "ticking time bomb" scenario represents a narrow exception to her opposition to torture as morally wrong, ineffective and dangerous to American soldiers.

"In the event we were ever confronted with having to interrogate a detainee with knowledge of an imminent threat to millions of Americans, then the decision to depart from standard international practices must be made by the President, and the President must be held accountable," she said.

"That very, very narrow exception within very, very limited circumstances is better than blasting a big hole in our entire law." Clinton's stance comes days after a complex bill on the treatment of terror suspects became law, a compromise between McCain and President Bush.

McCain and some human rights groups said the bill bans cruelty to detainees. Clinton and other advocates said it gives the President the power to mistreat prisoners.

McCain's chief political aide, John Weaver, mocked Clinton's willingness to make an exception.

"I'm shocked Sen. Clinton would try to have it both ways," Weaver said in an e-mail.

A Human Rights Watch official, Tom Malinowski, said he was disappointed by her exception.

"Once you open the door to this sort of thing, you legitimize the practice," he said.