US Army Manual To Omit Ban On Prisoner Humiliation

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- The U.S. Department of Defense has decided to leave out a Geneva Convention ban on "humiliating and degrading treatment" from its new detainee policies, The Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

Citing knowledgeable military officials, the newspaper said the Army's new Field Manual on interrogation is being rewritten to create safeguards so all detainees are treated humanely but can still be questioned effectively.

However, the U.S. State Department fiercely opposes the military's decision to exclude Geneva Convention protections and has been pushing for the Pentagon and White House to reconsider, the Defense Department officials acknowledged, according to the Times report.

The detainee directive was due to be released in late April along with the Army Field Manual on interrogation. But objections from several senators on other Field Manual issues forced a delay, The Times said. The senators objected to provisions allowing harsher interrogation techniques for those considered unlawful combatants, such as suspected terrorists, as opposed to traditional prisoners of war, the Times reported.

http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/145525958?-3825

so, it's alright with our military if our soldiers, who happen to be captured, are subjected to humiliation by their captors? Or, do we reserve that right just for ourselves?

To a man who has systematically given the finger to the world, george the decider plans to piss on the Geneva Conventions.

Abu Ghraib was mostly about humiliation. It should outrage Americans that admonitions against humiliation weren't included. Evidently the Bush regime and it's military don't have a bit of remorse about the crimes committed there. After all, the most they ever expressed was anger at the fact that the crimes were revealed and broadcast to the world.

Any words about their concern or outrage are worthless if they aren't training the soldiers to follow the decency dictates of the Geneva Convention. We needn't look any further for the origin of the abuses in Iraq and elsewhere by our troops. This is a clear signal that anything goes.

If the NSA is sifting through this comment: Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaeda

Now, that I have your attention I would like you to send a message to the President:

Mr. President,

You may not understand this, but I am going to explain it to you. The Constitution and the Geneva Conventions are memorials to every man or woman who has ever died in combat. When you throw those aside, it is as if you are desecrating the most sacred war memorial. We can build monuments out of stone, but they will only last so long because they are physical, but ideas can live on forever. That is why what you have done is profoundly wrong.

The Constitution in particular is a memorial to every America who has ever died enjoying their freedoms, including the people who died on 9/11.

The terrorists we are now fighting are ruthless and horrible. That, however, does not give us the right to descend to their level. We are better and that is the reason we fight this war.

There are two paths to defeat in this war on terror: 1) allow the terrorists to continue attacking us without any sort of action, 2) self-destruct in hatred and fear. Mr. President we are on the latter path, and it is you sir, who has brought us down that path.

One day historians, should they still exist, will look back and say that your decision to abandon human rights, as the beginning of the end for America's republic. Most of the people who support you, probably know very little about the Constitution or the Geneva Conventions, but you must learn them and uphold them, that is your job as leader of the free world.

I mean for the "War on Terror," that would allow more torture.