Karen Hughes ‘worried’ that torture would harm U.S. image, was ‘very vocal’ in internal debate. [View All]

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Karen Hughes ‘worried’ that torture would harm U.S. image, was ‘very vocal’ in internal debate.

Last month, Phillip Zelikow disclosed that while serving as a top-aide to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2005, he had written and circulated a memo expressing grave concerns about the Bush administration’s torture regime. Another memo Zelikow co-authored at around the same time even offered a legal alternative to the program. Now, it turns out that strong opposition to President Bush’s interrogation policies came from within his tight-knit inner circle. Karen Hughes, counselor to the president, told the Houston Chronicle this week that she was “very vocal in the internal debate”:

She acknowledged the current uproar over interrogation tactics and allegations of prisoner torture during the Bush years.

“I was very vocal in the internal debate,” she said. “I worried about how that would make us look in the eyes of the world. But I had left the White House when a lot of that was taking place.”

Then she paused, worried for the first time in 90 minutes that she’d made a gaffe. Whatever Sen. John McCain says about interrogation techniques, she added quickly, she has similar views.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/05/19/karen-hughes-torture/