One less thing for lefties to whine about......
In Big Shift, U.S. to Follow Geneva Treaty for Detainees By NEIL A. LEWIS and JOHN O’NEIL
WASHINGTON, July 11 — In a sweeping change of policy, the Pentagon has decided that it will treat all detainees in compliance with the minimum standards spelled out in the Geneva conventions, a senior defense official said today.
The new policy comes on the heels of a Supreme Court ruling last month invalidating a system of military tribunals the Pentagon had created to try suspected terrorists, and just before Congress takes up the question of a replacement system in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today.
As part of its decision, the court found that a key provision of the Geneva conventions, known as Common Article 3, did apply to terror suspects, contradicting the position taken by the Bush administration.
The Pentagon memo allowing detainees the protections of Article 3 was first reported today by The Financial Times.
In 2002, President Bush declared that members of Al Qaeda and other terror suspects seized during the invasion of Afghanistan were “illegal combatants,’’ and so were not entitled to the protections of the Geneva conventions, which among other things set forth rules for the treatment of prisoners of war.
The main thrust of the recent Supreme Court ruling, in a case known as Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, was that the administration had exceeded its authority by creating a system of tribunals without the approval of Congress. But the court also declared that the suspects fell under Article 3, which applies to all “armed combatants,’’ and that detainees were able to assert their rights under Article 3 in federal court.
President Bush last week said that he “would comply’’ with the court’s ruling, but he has given no details of how he would do so. |
