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Protect the Protections Be Careful Amending War Crimes Act

Newsday
September 6, 2006

For years the White House insisted that the Geneva Conventions didn't apply to prisoners in the war on terror. That shielded CIA officers and other civilian operatives from legal responsibility for prisoner abuses such as forced nakedness and other forms of sexual humiliation.

The Supreme Court demolished that shield in June, when it ruled that the conventions' common article 3, which prohibits "outrages upon personal dignity" and "humiliating and degrading treatment," does apply to detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Unfortunately, the White House now appears poised to try an end run.

According to news accounts, officials have drafted amendments to the War Crimes Act - which in 1996 made any grave breach of the Geneva Conventions a crime - so that degrading and humiliating treatment will no longer be included. Congress should reject any changes that would undermine the conventions, which protect captive Americans just as they do detainees in this nation's custody.

Critics say the wording of common article 3 is too vague. They insist that changing the War Crimes Act to spell out specific illegal acts would make prosecutions more likely. That sounds reasonable, but for one thing. It's hard to believe that the White House would push to make it easier for civilians in its employ to be convicted of war crimes once President George W. Bush leaves office. It's more likely that in enumerating specific offenses, the administration would exclude any of the abuses it has condoned.

Using humiliation and degrading abuse in interrogations is unproductive and un-American. Congress should be wary of any attempt to finesse the prohibitions it agreed to in 1949 when it ratified the Geneva Conventions.

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