More Ambiguity About Torture

Zagorin writes: "Among the first Administration officials to make that point was Steven Bradbury, acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He stressed that the Geneva Convention -- which requires humane treatment as well as trials with legal rights for all prisoners -- is unclear and open to interpretation: 'The application of common Article 3 [of the Geneva Convention] will create a degree of uncertainty for those who fight to defend us from terrorist attack.' "

Thomas E. Ricks writes in The Washington Post: " 'It's a significant change in my view because the troops on the ground in Iraq have never been sure it was a requirement' to observe the Geneva rules, said Gary D. Solis, a former Marine Corps infantry commander who is an expert on the law of war. 'It sets the philosophic tone for our soldiers and Marines.'

"For years, . . . experts said, U.S. military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan were operating under guidelines that were not clear. As prisoners were taken in Afghanistan late in 2001 and early in 2002, for example, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said that the United States 'for the most part' was treating the prisoners 'in a manner that is reasonably consistent with the Geneva Convention.' But he said that it was not required to do so, because the detainees are 'unlawful combatants' who 'do not have any rights under the Geneva Convention.'

"This murkiness has been cited by some critics of the administration's operations in Iraq as contributing to a culture of abuse that led to inhumane treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison and other sites."

Tom Brune in Newsday quotes a skeptic: " 'It is all depends on what the meaning of humane is,' said Georgetown law professor David Cole, a human rights critic of the White House.

"Pentagon interrogation policy, Cole said, permits activities such as use of dogs for intimidation, forced nudity and making men wear women's underwear.

" 'I don't think any international scholar, or indeed any other country, would think those kind of tactics would be humane,' Cole said."

Scott Shane , in the New York Times, quotes Martin S. Lederman, a former Justice Department official now at the Georgetown University law school.

" 'The administration has fought tooth and nail for four years to say Common Article 3 does not apply to Al Qaeda,' Mr. Lederman said. 'Having lost that fight, I'm afraid they're now saying, "Never mind, we've been in compliance with Article 3 all along." ' "

Lederman himself writes on his blog that the administration conveniently defines "humane treatment" as whatever it is doing.

Blogger Andrew Sullivan writes: "As so often with Cheney and Rumsfeld, their mastery of bureaucratic warfare and political dissembling requires maximal skepticism toward anything coming from this administration."

Novak Reveals Little

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Syndicated columnist Robert Novak broke his long, self-imposed silence in a column today, writing that special prosecutor "Patrick Fitzgerald has informed my attorneys that, after 2-1/2 years, his investigation of the CIA leak case concerning matters directly relating to me has been concluded. That frees me to reveal my role in the federal inquiry that, at the request of Fitzgerald, I have kept secret."