Bush and war crimes - cougarguard.com — unofficial BYU Cougars / LDS sports, football, basketball forum and message board

Cali Coug · 06-29-2006, 07:42 PM

In a fantastic ruling today, the Supreme Court determined that the President is subject to the limitations of statute and treaty in conducting the war on terror. The Court specifically held that Article 3 of the Geneva Convention does, in fact, apply to al-Qaeda prisoners. What this means is that any form of torture which we have been utilizing (such as waterboarding, hypothermia, etc.) is illegal under our treaty obligations. Violation of these obligations constitutes war crimes and exposes the violator to the death penalty.

Quite clearly, the floor of conduct established by the President for interrogation of al-Qaeda prisoners is illegal. Further such interrogations would be war crimes under US law (through our treaty obligations). Past conduct isn't likely to be prosecuted since Bush was working under the advice of the Office of Legal Counsel at the DOJ, though there have been some of us who claimed all along that what he was doing was illegal and that Bybee's torture memo was bogus. In fact, Justice Kennedy in his opinion even noted the Youngstown sliding scale of authority that I said would apply here. Is this to say I am brilliant? Far from it. What it IS to say is that if a fledgling lawyer like myself can figure it out, the brilliant men at the DOJ should have too (and I think did, but caved to political pressure to provide a different, wrong result).

This ruling has HUGE implications for the administration.

06-29-2006, 07:42 PM	#1
Cali Coug Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 5,996	Bush and war crimes In a fantastic ruling today, the Supreme Court determined that the President is subject to the limitations of statute and treaty in conducting the war on terror. The Court specifically held that Article 3 of the Geneva Convention does, in fact, apply to al-Qaeda prisoners. What this means is that any form of torture which we have been utilizing (such as waterboarding, hypothermia, etc.) is illegal under our treaty obligations. Violation of these obligations constitutes war crimes and exposes the violator to the death penalty. Quite clearly, the floor of conduct established by the President for interrogation of al-Qaeda prisoners is illegal. Further such interrogations would be war crimes under US law (through our treaty obligations). Past conduct isn't likely to be prosecuted since Bush was working under the advice of the Office of Legal Counsel at the DOJ, though there have been some of us who claimed all along that what he was doing was illegal and that Bybee's torture memo was bogus. In fact, Justice Kennedy in his opinion even noted the Youngstown sliding scale of authority that I said would apply here. Is this to say I am brilliant? Far from it. What it IS to say is that if a fledgling lawyer like myself can figure it out, the brilliant men at the DOJ should have too (and I think did, but caved to political pressure to provide a different, wrong result). This ruling has HUGE implications for the administration.