Pentagon Counsel Rebuffs Official Policy on Guantanamo Commissions
Pentagon Counsel Rebuffs Official Policy on Guantanamo Commissions
Today, the media obtained a memo from Undersecretary of Defense Gordon England telling Pentagon officials that all detainees are entitled to protections under the Geneva Conventions. Specifically, England says the Supreme Court found the administration’s “military commissions…are not consistent with Common Article 3″ of Geneva:
The Supreme Court has determined that Common Article 3 to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 applies as a matter of law to the conflict with Al Qaeda. The Court found that the military commissions as constituted by the Department of Defense are not consistent with Common Article 3.
Apparently, someone from the Pentagon’s legal team didn’t get the memo. From today’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on detainee treatment:
Under questioning from the committee, Daniel Dell’Orto, principal deputy general counsel at the Pentagon, said he believes the current treatment of detainees — as well as the existing tribunal process — already complies with Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. [...]
“The military commission set up does provide a right to counsel, a trained military defense counsel and the right to private counsel of the detainee’s choice,” Mr. Dell’Orto said. “We see no reason to change that in legislation.”
The Pentagon needs to get on the same page – this page in particular.
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India might soon be at war with Pakistan.
Terrorist attacks in Bombay aren’t good for world peace.
Teams of Pentagon military lawyers discuss and debate every attack before it takes place.
July 11th, 2006 at 2:47 pmAbout as cut and dry as it gets.
July 11th, 2006 at 2:47 pmThe Pentagon doesn’t read, they act.
July 11th, 2006 at 2:48 pmBush & Rumsfeld broke the law. PERIOD. Under federal criminal law, anyone who “commits a war crime … shall be fined … or imprisoned for life or any term of years, or both, and if death results to the victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of death.” And a war crime is defined as “any conduct … which constitutes a violation of Common Article 3 of the international conventions signed at Geneva.”
In other words, with the Hamdan decision, U.S. officials found to be responsible for subjecting war on terror detainees to torture, cruel treatment or other “outrages upon personal dignity” could face prison or even the death penalty.
So the only question remaining is should Bush and Rumsfeld get the death penalty?
July 11th, 2006 at 2:49 pmPut me on the jury!
July 11th, 2006 at 2:56 pmOur enemies are everywhere! This kind of talk is bad for morale! Rally round your flag and your leaders! Questions are the enemy of progress! Obedience is next to Godliness!
July 11th, 2006 at 2:59 pmSad thing, the average American couch potato won’t notice or care. Just as long as it’s not them…
A woman in front of me at the store today complained about not having health care. She was no spring chicken either. I told her that out of all teh Industrialized Nations on the planet, the United States is the only one without national healthcare. “You mean like Canada?” I nodded. And you know what she says “They must have really high taxes there.” The sheep do not care enough to fight for themselves, why bother to fight for some foreigners…
July 11th, 2006 at 3:05 pmWell, I suppose we should have anticipated this.
Before Hamdan: “We don’t torture (we let our allies do that). And besides, Geneva doesn’t apply to terrorists.”
After Hamdan: “We’ve been following Geneva all along, so there’s no reason to change things.”
I tell you, Clinton used to catch all kinds of flak for being the master of spin, but he had nothing on Bush and his team.
July 11th, 2006 at 3:07 pmThe military industrial complex has been in business for themselves and the big corporations and banks that support it since the National Security Act of 1947. The slaughter of innocents and adherance to the law is long gone. It is just getting so bad that even the blind are even noticing.
For a defense that is 1/2 of all military expenditures of all countries in the world, it has shown that it can only overthrow small countries of interest to banking and corporate interests to establish economic beach heads. The covert activities of the CIA has been more effective at overthowing center to left wing democracies and putting in puppet dictatorships.
The Pentagon has shown itself to be more of a make work program with giant wastes of money on boondogles that will never protect or help the American people. That is why it is called the military-industrial complex, fed by military pork representatives that, along with K-street, are in a revolving door to enrich each other and little else.
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
July 11th, 2006 at 3:08 pmThomas Jefferson
The so-called liberal media won’t even mention this hypocrisy. They’ll get another free-pass.
July 11th, 2006 at 3:25 pmFunny isn’t it when a Dem changes his mind or direction he or she is a no good flip-flopper. But Repugnants completely reverse themselves and nothing is said. Looks to me like the adoption of the Geneva Conventions for prisoners in Quantanomo, after saying that this administration didn’t have to follow them, is nothing but a gigantic FLIP-FLOP. Hey Dems make a big issue of this and ram it down the throats of Bush and Company!
July 11th, 2006 at 5:40 pm[...] Think Progress [...]
July 11th, 2006 at 6:27 pm