[JURIST] Outgoing Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge [official profile], in an interview with BBC News airing Friday, said that the US does not condone the use of torture to extract information from terrorists, but added that "under an extreme set of circumstances," where it could prevent a major loss of life, torture "could happen." Ridge's comments come after Thursday's release of a Human Rights Watch report [JURIST report; text of HRW report] calling for the Bush administration to set up an independent commission to investigate allegations of the use of torture during interrogations at Abu Ghraib prison [JURIST Hot Topic]. Also Thursday, the Justice Department announced that it has opened an investigation [New York Times report] into FBI documents [JURIST report] that conclude that the military used coercive and abusive tactics while interrogating prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and in Iraq. BBC News has more on Ridge's comments.