Administration Says It's Meeting Geneva Convention Standard
Though acknowledging convention protections apply to detainees, Bush hits resistance in Congress by declaring treatment won't change.
By Peter Spiegel and Maura Reynolds, Times Staff Writers
July 12, 2006
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration acknowledged Tuesday that it was legally obligated to apply Geneva Convention protections to detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, reversing a position it has held tightly for more than four years.
But it declared that the shift would not significantly change the way it treated captives because it was already meeting that standard — a position that put it at odds Tuesday with key Democratic as well as Republican members of Congress.
Those critics charged that the administration should ease its tough confinement tactics and drop its military commission system for trying detainees and replace it with the standard U.S. military justice system.
"If you fight that approach, it's going to be a long, hot summer," said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), in a tense exchange with a Justice Department official at a congressional hearing.
The conflict came as the administration and Congress prepared to respond to a landmark Supreme Court decision last month that ruled the administration's system of prosecuting detainees violated U.S. law and the Geneva Convention....
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-detain12jul12,0,4800587.story?coll=la-home-headlines
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