In case any of you are feeling really good this morning, or are suffering under some false sense of well being, I have a cure for you.
The Bush administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees, CIA officers and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading war prisoners, according to U.S. officials and a copy of the amendments.
Officials say the amendments would alter a U.S. law passed in the mid-1990s that criminalized violations of the Geneva Conventions, a set of international treaties governing military conduct in wartime. The conventions generally bar the cruel, humiliating and degrading treatment of wartime prisoners without spelling out what all those terms mean.
The draft U.S. amendments to the War Crimes Act would narrow the scope of potential criminal prosecutions to 10 specific categories of illegal acts against detainees during a war, including torture, murder, rape and hostage-taking.
Left off the list would be what the Geneva Conventions refer to as “outrages upon [the] personal dignity” of a prisoner and deliberately humiliating acts — such as the forced nakedness, use of dog leashes and wearing of women’s underwear seen at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq — that fall short of torture.
I guess I wouldn’t have thought that the political climate was still conducive to rewriting the law in order to cover for war criminals. I’m wrong about a lot of things.
Perhaps Joe will make this part of his platform.
Thanks for the cure, Chris.
I must admit that the Lamont win and the rainbow over the Ortiz Mountains this morning did make me feel pretty happy.
Sometimes being part of the reality based community sucks.
So, instead of tucking these nasty ‘get out of jail free’ cards into the legislation to create the military tribunals, now they’re going after the War Crimes Act itself. They’re desperate to exonerate themselves before November. The dirty bastards.
There is no chance the Dems will get a spine transplant soon enough for there to be a chance in hell the neo-cons will be indicted for war crimes in the US. US Dems never did anything about Nixon and Kissinger and the bombing of Cambodia and Laos. Any war crime trials will have to happen at The Hague.
Doesn’t this make it easier to drag them to the Hague or into (say) Spanish courts? A lot of the extra-territoral jurisdiction stuff depends on there being no way to properly prosecute in the home jurisdiction.
I guess Bush didn’t intend travelling much after 2008 anyway.
Yeah.. this one was a real nut buster.. and I don’t even have nuts.
The climate is gettin’ hot fer BushDog and this ain’t gonna go anywhere.
Why not?
Cause ReThug Senators and Reps are getting the message, and not just ’cause Loserman lost, stand with the BushFool and yer goin’ home.
That’s what happens in a democracy dog.
One last thing….
It ain’t 2004 no more.
Let Congress pass it’s approval by example. How about naked piles and pyramids on the floor of the House and Senate during debate? Leashes and guard dogs should be fine, if that’s what they’re saying isn’t humiliating treatment. Hooded, wired up and shitting himself/herself would be a perfect way for senators and congress-critters to cast a yea vote for the amendment.