Retroactive War Crime Protection Proposed
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http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/081006A.shtml
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Retroactive War Crime Protection Proposed
By Pete Yost
The Associated Press
Wednesday 09 August 2006
The Bush administration drafted amendments to the War Crimes Act
that would retroactively protect policymakers from possible criminal
charges for authorizing any humiliating and degrading treatment of
detainees, according to lawyers who have seen the proposal.
The move by the administration is the latest effort to deal with
treatment of those taken into custody in the war on terror.
At issue are interrogations carried out by the CIA, and the degree
to which harsh tactics such as water-boarding were authorized by
administration officials. A separate law, the Uniform Code of Military
Justice, applies to the military.
The Washington Post first reported on the War Crimes Act amendments
Wednesday.
One section of the draft would outlaw torture and inhuman or cruel
treatment, but it does not contain prohibitions from Article 3 of the
Geneva Conventions against "outrages upon personal dignity, in
particular humiliating and degrading treatment." A copy of the section
of the draft was obtained by The Associated Press.
Another section would apply the legislation retroactively,
according to two lawyers who have seen the contents of the section and
who spoke on condition of anonymity because their sources did not
authorize them to release the information.
One of the two attorneys said that the draft is in the revision
stage but that the administration seems intent on pushing forward the
draft's major points in Congress after Labor Day.
"I think what this bill can do is in effect immunize past crimes.
That's why it's so dangerous," said a third attorney, Eugene Fidell,
president of the National Institute of Military Justice.
Fidell said the initiative is "not just protection of political
appointees, but also CIA personnel who led interrogations."
Interrogation practices "follow from policies that were formed at
the highest levels of the administration," said a fourth attorney,
Scott Horton, who has followed detainee issues closely. "The
administration is trying to insulate policymakers under the War Crimes
Act."
The Bush administration contends Common Article 3 of the Geneva
Conventions includes a number of vague terms that are susceptible to
different interpretations.
Extreme interrogation practices have been a flash point for
criticism of the administration.
When interrogators engage in waterboarding, prisoners are strapped
to a plank and dunked in water until nearly drowning.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Congress "is aware of the dilemma
we face, how to make sure the CIA and others are not unfairly
prosecuted."
He said that at the same time, Congress "will not allow political
appointees to waive the law."
Larry Cox, Amnesty International USA's executive director, said
that "President Bush is looking to limit the War Crimes Act through
legislation" now that the Supreme Court has embraced Article 3 of the
Geneva Conventions. In June, the court ruled that Bush's plan to try
Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunals violates Article 3.