This has to be one of the most bizarre stories I've read yet about the Abu Ghraib scandal and it's larger implications.
Reuters got its hands today on a legal memo from the Bush administration that says, basically, that the president is bound by NO international treaties and no international law, including the Geneva Convention. Essentially, the memo is saying that if the president wants to have our troops violate the Geneva Conventions, that's ok. What's worse, the memo seems to say that this bizarre twisting of the law doesn't only apply to suspected terrorists, but we also don't have to apply the Geneva Conventions to prisoners of war who are part of legitimate foreign armies. Try them apples.
And we wonder why people behead our citizens when our own government runs around saying there are no rules to war. Are there or aren't there? And as for the argument that beheadings are "worse" than torture, tell that to this guy. Dead is dead.
Reuters:
President Bush, as commander-in-chief, is not restricted by U.S. and international laws barring torture, Bush administration lawyers stated in a March 2003 memorandum.
The 56-page memo to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld cited the president's 'complete authority over the conduct of war,' overriding international treaties such as a global treaty banning torture, the Geneva Conventions and a U.S. federal law against torture.
'In order to respect the president's inherent constitutional authority to manage a military campaign ... (the prohibition against torture) must be construed as inapplicable to interrogations undertaken pursuant to his commander-in-chief authority,' stated the memo, obtained by Reuters on Tuesday.
