Bush Dismisses Geneva Convention!!

Says he has got to give his interrogators the tools they need - wonder what tools they are then, pliars and blowtorch perhaps!

David Fickling
Friday September 15, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

The US president, George Bush, today dismissed the Geneva conventions on the laws of war as "vague" and called on Congress to back controversial new rules on the handling of terror suspects.

Mr Bush's remarks came after the proposed laws were yesterday rejected by senior Republicans including the former secretary of state Colin Powell and the influential senator John McCain.

The US government last week admitted the existence of a long-secret CIA prison network, announcing that 14 high-value terror suspects had been transferred from the network to the Guantánamo Bay prison camp.

Mr Bush said the interrogation of the terror suspects would have to end if the new laws were not passed. "This programme won't go forward if there's vague standards applied like those in the Geneva Conventions," he said.

"Perhaps some in Congress don't think this programme is important. I think it's vital. I got to give [interrogators] the tools they need."

A military handbook released at the same time as the announcement outlawed the use of a broad range of torture techniques - including the playing of loud music, forcing prisoners to hold uncomfortable poses and simulated drownings - by military personnel.

However, it did not cover the behaviour of CIA officers, who are responsible for interrogating most terrorist suspects.

New laws proposed by Mr Bush would pave the way for trying the 14 suspects under a system of military commissions, and would prevent any prosecutions over the treatment of terror detainees until now.

When they were announced last week, Mr Bush admitted the al-Qaida suspect Abu Zubaydah had been subjected to several "tough" alternative interrogation techniques during his incarceration.

Reports indicated that these techniques included punches and slaps, naked confinement in cold cells and being forced to stand for long stretches at a time.

Mr Bush claimed the techniques - which would contravene the Geneva conventions on inhuman and degrading treatment - did not constitute torture.

He added that the interrogations had provided information useful to terrorism investigators, although he did not provide any specific information.