NYT: European Faults U.S. Official for Remarks on Geneva Rules

[DeepModem Mom]

European Faults U.S. Official for Remarks on Geneva Rules
By ARIANE BERNARD
Published: September 23, 2006

PARIS, Sept. 22 — The European counterterrorism chief, Gijs de Vries, criticized a Bush administration official who suggested that the Geneva Conventions should not be considered sacrosanct, and that the legal framework for the treatment of terrorists should be amended.

The State Department’s legal adviser, John B. Bellinger III, said in an interview published Thursday in The Financial Times that he questioned whether the Geneva Conventions should be “the immutable legal holy grail as to what the rules ought to be in the 21st century.”

“Mr. Bellinger is suggesting that we should change the rules,” Mr. de Vries, the European Union’s counterterrorism coordinator, said Friday in a telephone interview. “The opinion of Europe’s ministers is that respecting the rules, not bending them, is essential to our credibility and hence to our effectiveness in the fight against terrorism.”...

***

In a telephone interview on Friday, Mr. Bellinger expressed “shock” that his comments had not been well received, and said he was “not suggesting that the old rules should be discarded or that they should not be followed. The U.S. is absolutely committed to our obligations under the Geneva Convention and under existing human rights treaties.”...

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“The purpose of terrorism is always to provoke governments, and in this case Western governments, into overreacting by undermining the rights we have pledged to uphold,” Mr. de Vries said. That, he said, just creates grievances that encourage further radicalism....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/23/world/europe/23europe.html

[Erika]

1. Europe sees thru W torture plans as BS and yells foul

W just doesn't get it. The rest of the world does.

[MisterP]

2. silly litmus test! all hail Cornelius Sulla!

how low will we go?
that's not a rhetorical question--he's done everything but a Kent State, with 28 months left.
See what depravity he's brought out in our Great Republic; sure it's an old and international tradition, but people are showing up with only 3 fingernails left...
...and he is fawningly defended by his loyal subjects

[Erika]

3. 28 months gives W all kinds of time to terrorize U.S. citizens

You know the ones that didn't fall for, terra, terra, terra, Bush style.

[lumpy]

4. My God, Mr.Bellinger blatantly speaks out of

'both sides of his mouth' practically at the same time. Amazing!

[jwirr]

5. I wish the EU people who are in the know about the secret

prisons our CIA had over there would blow the whistle on about Oct. 25th. Give us all the details that you know. We need the truth.

[Solly Mack]

6. Mr. Bellinger is a real piece of work

bookmarked...There's been a lot of body slams to absorb today