Report: Pentagon to drop Geneva

[dogday]

According to this morning's Los Angeles Times, the Defense and State departments are battling over whether to include a major human-rights decree in the U.S. terror-war rules. The public seems likely to join the debate as well.

"The Pentagon has decided to omit from new detainee policies a key tenet of the Geneva Convention that explicitly bans 'humiliating and degrading treatment,' according to knowledgeable military officials," the Times says, "a step that would mark a further, potentially permanent, shift away from strict adherence to international human rights standards."

The Geneva rule at stake is Article 3 (full text), banning "cruel treatment and torture" among other activities. After superseding this rule previously, the Times explains, the Pentagon is redrawing its standard rules. Within the department, the debate over Article 3 is pitting military lawyers -- including JAG leaders -- and State officials against Pentagon intelligence and Vice President Cheney's office.

In May, the Times reported the Pentagon was delaying the rules, which are published in the Army Field Manual, due to opposition in the Senate. "Some lawmakers think that creating different rules for enemy prisoners of war and irregular fighters contradicts the torture ban passed by Congress last year, which requires a 'uniform standard' for treating detainees," the paper reported. Senate action on that ban also delayed the manual from a release in fall 2005. If you're interested in more reading, Slate published an Explainer at the time: "What's an Army Field Manual?"

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2006/06/report_pentagon.html

[mod mom]

1. DESPICABLE! I wnder what republicans who actually served in the military

will think of this.

[spuddonna]

2. If we discard the Geneva Conventions...

... we have become the very enemy we fight. Why do people not see this?

[OhioChick]

5. You're absolutely right n/t

[JuniperLea]

3. Way to support our troops

If we ignore the Geneva Convention, our soldiers will be subjected to the same illegal, immoral and disgusting treatment BushCo currently subscribes to.

[mod mom]

6. The Administration showed how much they supported the troops by cutting

their benefits and sending them into battle with poor body armour.

[dogday]

4. Have we as a nation, lost all sense of DECENCY????

:mad::banghead:

[Marr]

7. We are just one little step from torturing domestic political dissidents.

Just an inch or two away. This is just insane.

[dogday]

8. Kicking for decency....