US security chief does not rule out torture

LONDON - Outgoing US Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge said that torture could be used to extract information from terror suspects in extreme cases to prevent huge loss of life.

He told the BBC in an interview that the United States did not condone the use of torture, but said it could happen "under an extreme set of circumstances" such as the threat of a nuclear holocaust.

In such a case "you would try to exhaust potentially every means you could to extract the information to save hundreds and thousands of people," he told the BBC's HARDTalk programme.

"But by and large, as a matter of policy, we need to state over and over again: we do not condone the use of torture to extract information from terrorists."

Ridge said interrogators questioned whether torturing terrorists would yield results anyway "given the nature of the enemy, the techniques they have adopted to protect themselves, and the hard-heartedness of these individuals".

His comments come a day after human rights activists urged the Bush administration to name a special prosecutor to investigate US officials who participated in or ordered torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Several US soldiers were charged last year after pictures showed prisoners in Iraq being abused. There have also been allegations of abuse and torture by former inmates of Guantanamo Bay.

Ridge said he believed it was only a matter of time before there was an attack on a major Western city of a chemical or biological nature.

"I don't think it is 'if'. I think it's a matter of 'when'," he said.

- REUTERS