In a sweeping change of policy, the Pentagon has decided that it will treat all detainees in compliance with the minimum standards spelled out in the Geneva conventions, a senior defense official said today.And while I'm happy to see the military slowly crawling back to the Light Side of the Force, I can't ignore the pronounced feeling of sick in my gut when "Geneva conventions," "minimum standards" and "sweeping change of policy" can coexist in one sentence.
The new policy comes on the heels of a Supreme Court ruling last month invalidating a system of military tribunals the Pentagon had created to try suspected terrorists, and just before Congress takes up the question of a replacement system in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today.
As part of its decision, the court found that a key provision of the Geneva conventions, known as Common Article 3, did apply to terror suspects, contradicting the position taken by the Bush administration.
11 July 2006
RULE OF LAW
I have little time to write this morning (like most mornings), but I wanted to make sure everyone was aware of this:
2 comments:
Just a few rules so that everybody can have fun: ad hominem attacks on the blogger are fair; ad hominem attacks on other commenters will be deleted. And I will absolutely not stand for anything that is, in my judgment, demeaning, insulting or hateful to any gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or religion. And though I won't insist on keeping politics out, let's think long and hard before we say anything particularly inflammatory.
Also, sorry about the whole "must be a registered user" thing, but I do deeply hate to get spam, and I refuse to take on the totalitarian mantle of moderating comments, and I am much too lazy to try to migrate over to a better comments system than the one that comes pre-loaded with Blogger.
on the plus side, at least someone took the time to READ the Geneva Conventions. yeesh.
ReplyDeleteThere's a really great New Yorker article (actually a few) that detail the bizarro world that went on behind the scenes on War on Terror policy. Apparently, the bulk of the "Fuck the Geneva conventions" arguments came from Cheney (particularly his lead counsel), with Pentagon officials and career military JAGs arguing passionately and furiously for the traditional standards to stay in place. I'd argue that the SCOTUS decision probably just gave that crew enough leverage to eke out a win against Deathmongering Cheney.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah. At least it's something.