I'm Sorry - 'Retroactively'?

Bush Officials Draft Law to Protect Administration from War Crimes
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush's administration drafted amendments to the War Crimes Act that would retroactively protect policymakers from criminal charges for authorizing any humiliating or degrading treatment of prisoners, lawyers who have seen the proposal said.

The move by the administration is the latest effort to deal with treatment of those taken into custody in the war on terror.

At issue are interrogations carried out by the CIA and the degree to which harsh tactics such as water-boarding were authorized by administration officials. A separate law, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, applies to the military.

The Washington Post newspaper first reported on the War Crimes Act amendments Wednesday.

One section of the draft would outlaw torture and inhuman or cruel treatment but it does not contain prohibitions from Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions against “outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment.”

A copy of the section of the draft was obtained by The Associated Press.

Another section would apply the legislation retroactively, said two lawyers who have seen the contents of the section and who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The White House, without elaboration, said in a statement the bill “will apply to any conduct by any U.S. personnel, whether committed before or after the law is enacted.”

One of the two lawyers said the draft is in the revision stage but the administration seems intent on pushing forward the draft's major points in Congress after Labour Day.

“I think what this bill can do is in effect immunize past crimes. That's why it's so dangerous,” said a third lawyer, Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice.

Mr. Fidell said the initiative is “not just protection of political appointees but also CIA personnel who led interrogations.”

Interrogation practices “follow from policies that were formed at the highest levels of the administration,” said a fourth lawyer, Scott Horton, who has followed detainee issues closely.

“The administration is trying to insulate policymakers under the War Crimes Act.”

A White House spokesman said Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions includes a number of “vague terms” that are susceptible to different interpretations.

The administration believes it is very important to bring clarity to the War Crimes Act so those on the frontlines in the war on terror “have clear rules that are defined in law,” said the White House spokesman.

Extreme interrogation practices have been a flash-point for criticism of the administration.

When interrogators engage in waterboarding, prisoners are strapped to a plank and dunked in water until nearly drowning.