The Chris Moeller Archives

Bush v. Geneva Convention

I'm having difficulty connecting the dots here. Upon public disclosure that the CIA is operating secret prisons for suspected al Qaeda operatives in Eastern Europe, President Bush said today that the U.S. does not engage in torture. Yet, his administration continues to threaten a veto of John McCain's Senate bill that would specifically ban the practice already forbidden by international law under the 1949 Geneva Convention. McCain's bill passed the Republican-controlled Senate by a vote of 90 to 9, but the White House seeks an exemption in the ban for CIA officials. Hmmmm.

In the coming weeks, Bush attorneys will also defend, before the Supreme Court, the Administration's policy of using military tribunals, rather than U.S. or international courts, to try terror suspects. The terms and conditions of the tribunals are fully subject to the whims of the President, with death sentences possible. The challenge to the policy is being brought by attorneys representing inmates at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba-- inmates who were initially denied the rights to an attorney and to challenge their imprisonment, and one specifically who has been imprisoned without a hearing for 21 months.

Speaking in Panama City this morning, in the midst of large scale protest demonstrations over this and other issues related to the U.S. President's abuse of wartime powers, Bush promised that "we will aggressively pursue (the enemy,) but we will do so under the law." And yet simultaneously, and also quite aggressively, he pursues the dismantling of such human rights guidelines.

Retiring Supreme Court Justice-- and Reagan appointee, Sandra Day O'Connor, wrote in response to an early round "enemy combatant" case last year that "a state of war is not a blank check when it comes to protecting the rights of the nation's citizens." I would add that this protection should extend to foreign citizens, as well, consistent with the international laws that the U.S., itself, was instrumental in creating, and that the people's representatives in Congress have recently and overwhelmingly endorsed.

It's hard to believe that the American people are even having to discuss this.

posted by CM @ 3:48 PM