Pentagon Rejects Geneva Convention For Detainees
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Courtesy Of: The Seattle Times
By Julian E. Barnes
Los Angeles Times
Monday. June 5, 2006

Washington--The Pentagon has decided to omit from new detainee policies a key tenet of the Geneva Convention that bans "humiliating and degrading treatment," according to military officials.

The step would mark a potentially permanent shift away from strict adherence to international rights standards.

...The process has been beset by debate and controversy, but the decision to omit Geneva Convention protections from a principal directive comes at a time of growing worldwide criticism of U.S. detention practices and the conduct of American forces in Iraq.

...President Bush's critics and supporters have debated whether it is possible to prove a direct link between administration declarations that it will not be bound by Geneva and events such as the abuses at Abu Ghraib or the killings of civilians last year at Haditha, Iraq, allegedly by U.S. Marines.

But the exclusions of the Geneva provisions may make it more difficult for the administration to portray such incidents as abberations. And it would undercut arguments that U.S. forces follow the toughest, most broadly accepted standards.

...For decades, it was the official policy of the U.S. military to follow minimum standards for treating detainees as laid out in the Geneva Convention.

But, in 2002, Bush suspended portions of the Geneva Convention for captured al-Qaida and Taliban fighters. Bush's order superseded military policy in effect at the time, touching off debate over U.S. obligations under the Geneva accord, a debate that intensified after reports of abuses at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and at Iraq's Abu Ghraib Prison.

Among the directives being rewritten following Bush's 2002 order is one governing U.S. detention operations. Military lawyers and other Defense officials wanted the redrawn version of the document, known as DoD Directive 2310, to again embrace Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention.

That provision bans torture and cruel treatment. Unlike other Geneva provisions, Article 3 covers all detainees.

Source:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003040116_detainees05.html