Bush / Pentagon fuck over McCain anti-torture provision

The Baltimore Sun (June 5th 2006) has a story about the way the Pentagon has been redrawing its policies on detainees and interrogation, and intends to issue a new Army Field Manual, which, along with accompanying directives, represents core instructions to U.S. soldiers worldwide.

The detainee directive was due to be released in late April along with the Army Field Manual on interrogations. Objections from several senators on other field manual issues forced a delay.

Julian Barnes of the Los Angeles Times says ..."

The Pentagon has decided to omit from new detainee policies a key tenet of the Geneva Conventions that explicitly bans "humiliating and degrading treatment," according to knowledgeable military officials, a step that would mark a further shift away from strict adherence to international human rights standards."

Derek P. Jinks, an assistant professor at the University of Texas School of Law and the author of a forthcoming book on Geneva, The Rule of War, argues that the decision to remove the Geneva reference from the directive shows that the administration intends to push the interrogation envelope.

"We are walking the line on the prohibition on cruel treatment," Jinks said. "But are we really in search of the boundary between the cruel and the acceptable?"

Of course what it means really is that as the McCain Bill added to the Defence Spending mandated the use of the Army Manual ... Keep it Simple Stupid ... just change the manual.

December 14th 2005 Bush and McCain shook a deal .. Dubya said the ban "is to make it clear to the world that this government does not torture and that we adhere to the international convention of torture, whether it be here at home or abroad."

At the same time Dubya's toilet room attendant Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the U.N. Convention against Torture applied to U.S. personnel, regardless if they were at home or abroad.

The first cherries are here ... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm