Another Episode Of Weltschmerz

Geneva References Omitted From Revised Army Interrogation Manual

In another blow to the dignity of the military, our nation and the honor of those serving (have served), the US Army is deliberately excluding references to the Geneva Conventions in its training and field manuals... especially those regarding interrogation and treatment of prisoners, detainees and enemy combatants. It seems that the Bush gang is attempting yet another end run around the Constituion, military standards, laws, principles and ideals of our great nation.

The US Defense Department has decided to omit references to common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which bans "cruel treatment and torture" and "humiliating and degrading treatment" of detainees, from the new Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation and accompanying directives, an anonymous military official told the Los Angeles Times. The decision to omit specific references to Article 3 will not be final until the Pentagon officially releases the new field manual and implementing directives, which it was scheduled to do last April. The US State Department has been adamant in its opposition to omitting Geneva Convention protections, contending that including Article 3 in the field manual and official US interrogation guidelines will make it easier to defend US policies abroad by placing the US government on a better "moral footing." Pentagon officials, however, are concerned that the inclusion of Article 3 references could allow established interrogation techniques, such as segregating detainees or questioning a male detainee's manhood, to be challenged in US courts. A senior defense official, speaking anonymously, said that the planned detainee directive is based on Article 3, but "there are certain things unlawful combatants are not entitled to."

The Pentagon has been working on a new version of the manual since the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib (and other scandals) surfaced in 2004, but has struggled to come to an agreement on revisions. Delays in its release have been attributed to attempts to legitimize different interrogation techniques and allow the army to obtain timely intelligence from prisoners, while complying with the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, a measure pushed through Congress last year by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) that explicitly prohibits any cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment of persons in custody of the US government. High level military attorneys in May told Congress that some interrogation methods at Guantanamo Bay are not consistent with the field manual, calling some tactics humiliating and degrading.