Well, maybe this crazy ol' world is swinging back towards sanity. Whether this swing will be enough to keep the GOP in power, it's hard to say at this point. But whatever their motivations, we can all sleep a little easier tonight.
The Department of Defense has issued a directive that every single person held by the military, no matter where, and no matter who he or she is, is entitled to and will receive the treatment outlined in Geneva Conventions.
The memo instructs recipients to ensure that all Defense Department policies, practices and directives comply with Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions governing the humane treatment of prisoners.
"You will ensure that all DOD personnel adhere to these standards," [Deputy Defense Secretary] England wrote. [CNN.com]
You may remember that the Administration's somewhat twisted plans for people detained by the US Military was struck down by the US Supreme Court. (I say "twisted" because the rules seemed to be all tangled-- this guy gets this treatment in this place, but if he gets moved here or if he's a different kind of guy he gets this kind, etc.)
That BTW was such a cool exercise in the way government operates, shown in real time. I'm not being sarcastic! If I had been a teacher, I would use this story in my class to explain how the three branches deal with each other. Basically, the Executive made up some rules, the Judiciary reviewed those rules and said that the Executive couldn't do that under current law; however, it directed the Exec and the Legislative to work together to draft a law that would allow it. Now, if this weren't such a dangerous and important thing for our National Character, I would have liked to see the story play out: the other two branches hammer out a law, the Congress passes it, the Exec signs it, and the Judiciary is satisfied. If only it were a little stamp tax or something.
But instead, thank the Good Lord above, the Exec came to their senses and realized that if they went to the Congress, even one held by their own party, and worked out a deal whereby they could torture people, arguing in committees whether this or that horrible thing is torture, that would look really, really bad. Instead, they went back to those good ol' Geneva Conventions-- you know, the ones where another group of people many years ago already hammered out those details "so you don't have to". It's my understanding this means that there won't be a law drafted by the Congress because now there doesn't need to be. Although the McCain "torture amendment" already passed the Senate 90-9, I'd like to see Congress use this time to cement this DOD directive into law and set up some protections in US law that would keep another "War President" from going haywire again.
On the other hand, WH Press Sec Tony Snow was quoted in that CNN article as saying "We look forward to working with Congress on this," so that would imply just having a DOD directive doesn't mean it's all squared away. Of course, he also said, "This isn't a policy change," and it clearly is, so I'm not sure it's worth listening to him anyway.
These are just my observations based on reading one article on this, and I can't see a downside. But as I get to research this more fully and read other points of view on it, I might come back and update this post or do another.
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