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Tuesday, May 18, 2004

Geneva . . . isn’t that somewhere in France, anyway?

Newsweek has posted, in .pdf form, the January 2002 memo from Alberto Gonzales to George Bush in which the Geneva Convention is described as “quaint” and “obsolete.” As a public service to my readers, I’ve managed to dig up the original executive summary (which is, in all likelihood, what Bush actually read, since the Gonzalez memo is a killer-- over three pages long, single-spaced).

TO:  W
FROM:  GONZO
RE:  TORTURING THE BASTARDS

The Department of Justice has determined that the Geneva Convention accords on the treatment of prisoners of war do not apply when:

-- the prisoners are very bad men;

-- who have been captured by the United States;

-- and we really, really need information from them; or

-- we have no reason to believe that they have any information, but we’re still really, really mad at them.

The full memo goes on to say that there are two “positive” consequences of abandoning the Geneva accords:  one, it “preserves flexibility” (this is followed by three bullet points) and two, it “substantially reduces the threat of domestic criminal prosecution under the War Crimes Act” (this is followed by five bullet points).  These are direct quotes.  In other words:  Mr. President, you get to do whatever you want, and you get to do whatever you want.  What’s not to like?

On page three, Gonzales gets around to discussing the possibility that this ruling will provoke widespread international condemnation, and here’s what he says:

The statement that other nations would criticize the U.S. because we have determined that GPW does not apply is undoubtedly true.  It is even possible that some nations would point to that determination as a basis for failing to cooperate with us on specific matters in the war on terrorism.  On the other hand, some international and domestic criticism is already likely to flow from your previous decision not to treat the detainees as POWs.

Yep, you read that right.  On one hand, we might fray or shred the alliances we’ll need to deal effectively with shadowy stateless terrorists.  On the other hand . . . uh, on the other hand . . . oh, what the hell, we’d already decided to do that anyway.

The War Crimes Act is 18 U.S.C. 2441.  Any enterprising attorneys out there want to apply it to the Bush Administration’s conduct of this war?  Because it seems to me as if Oakland attorney Charles Gitting’s March 24, 2003 letter to the Joint Chiefs of Staff is looking pretty damn good these days.

Posted by Michael on 05/18 at 07:30 AM
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