Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., today said, "First, President Bush gave us the theory of pre-emptive war, which led to the unilateral invasion of another sovereign nation - Iraq; now there's apparently a Justice Department memo that tries to lay the legal foundation for pre-emptive torture, which may have led to the abuses in the Abu Ghraib prison.

"President Bush should have stepped up to the plate and condemned the content and the spirit of this memo when it first came across his desk. If it didn't first come across his desk, he should repudiate it now that it has become public. And, in the name of transparency, he should immediately release the memo to the public as a corrective to any future attempts by anyone in his administration to get around the law.

"President Bush says he is trying to spread democracy and the rule of law to other nations around the world. I assumed that was the `our way of life' that President Bush said the terrorists were trying to destroy. Now it comes to light that it is the Bush administration's Justice Department that is trying to circumvent the law. How do you spread democracy, the rule of law--`our way of life' -- by writing memos designed to circumvent the law?

"Democracy and the rule of law is not `what the Commander-in-Chief says it is." Democracy and the rule of law is what the U.S. Constitution, our laws, international law, U.S.-signed treaties, conventions and protocols say!

"Finally, this memo is dangerous because it violates a moral law - `do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' When we violate the law with respect to others - even terrorists who have no regard for morality or the law - it gives them an excuse to do the same to us. We should not put our young men and women in that position," Jackson concluded.