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Geneva-22

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By Timothy Noah
Posted Tuesday, July 11, 2006, at 8:47 PM ET

The Pentagon has sent out a directive ordering civilians and uniformed commanders in the field to review all practices and paperwork to ensure that they follow Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions—that pesky one outlawing violence, torture, cruel treatment, and "humiliating and degrading treatment" of prisoners of war. The memo is a response to a recent Supreme Court decision affirming that Common Article 3 applies to the war on terrorism. The catch is that the Bush administration, against all evidence, maintains that it has been adhering to the Geneva Conventions in practice even as it's been arguing in court that doing so would make hunting down terrorists impossible. The logic seems to run something like this: 1) The United States is inherently good; 2) Inherently good countries don't violate the Geneva conventions; 3) Ergo, the United States can do anything it wants to suspected terrorists and it still won't be violating the Geneva Conventions.

To read my footnotes to the memo, which appears in its entirety below and on the next page, roll your mouse over the passages highlighted in yellow.

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Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, decided on June 29. The decision disallowed the Bush administration's proposed military tribunals for Guantanamo prisoners on the grounds that they violated the Geneva Conventions. That, of course, logically undermined not only the Bush administration's argument in this particular case, but also its claim that the Geneva Conventions don't apply to the treatment of suspected Al Qaida prisoners generally.
Tell it to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, whom the CIA subjected to waterboarding, according to ABC News, despite the CIA's inspector general's finding that waterboarding violates the Geneva Conventions. A stickler might point out that the CIA doesn't fall under the jurisdiction of this Pentagon memo. OK then, tell it to Mohammed al-Qahtani, believed to be the would-be 20th 9/11 hijacker. Navy interrogators threatened him with a dog, made him stand nude, and hung pictures of scantily-clad women around his neck, according to Time magazine. The alleged abuses prompted a complaint from the FBI.
The Bush administration's definition of "humanely" is impossible to pin down. Note that the review of existing directives, practices, etc. is to be done "promptly" rather than "thoroughly." A better word might be "peremptorily."
hot document:
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By Timothy Noah
Posted Tuesday, July 11, 2006, at 8:47 PM ET
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Timothy Noah is a senior writer at Slate.
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