I read recently that the US congress called for field a manual outlining behavior codes for military handling of prisoners. The intent is to ban “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment". The Bush administration however is against this arguing this, “would impose restrictions on the Pentagon’s detention interrogation and prosecution of prisoners”, and it “would tie the president’s hand in wartime”.
I seem to have missed some points. Isn’t the reason Rumsfeld and his henchmen were grilled by the senate about Abu Ghraib because they didn’t follow the existing manual, not to mention the Geneva Convention? And wasn’t his argument at the time that these are not prisoners of war, but detainees, in a terrorist investigation, and therefore, the above does not apply? And lastly, does the administration’s position imply that “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment”, is an effective, and/or acceptable procedure?
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