It's nice to see the official U.S. policy on those committing illegal torture is to simply turn the coin and now make the very illegal a very common, legal, accepted policy event.
The Bush Administration basically is asking for the same rights and protections as communist dictators from countries like Argentina and Chile.
Leaders in the above countries enacted similar legislation to protect themselves from prosecution for war crimes and humanitarian abuses they carried out against political opponents and leftist Party members.
Leaders like Chile's own Augusto Pinochet used this "infirmity" defense to protect themselves from charges related to orders given for torture, mysterious disappearances and extra-judicial, mob like killings.
The United States is following the lead of "dirty war" nations, such as Argentina and Chile, in enacting what amounts to an amnesty law protecting U.S. government operatives, apparently up to and including President George W. Bush, who have committed or are responsible for human rights crimes.
While the focus of the current congressional debate has been on Bush's demands to redefine torture and to reinterpret the Geneva Conventions, the compromise legislation also would block prosecutions for violations already committed during the five-year-old "war on terror."
The compromise legislation bars criminal or civil legal action over past violations of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, according to press reports. Common Article 3 outlaws "violence to life and person," such as death and mutilation as well as cruel treatment and "outrages upon personal dignity."
The legislation now before Congress also would prohibit detainees from citing the Geneva Conventions as a legal basis for challenging their imprisonment or for seeking civil damages for their mistreatment.
Why do you want such protections unless you have serious skeletons in your White House closet that could cause legal nightmares down the road?
Kind of reeks of assumed guilt if you ask me..
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