News Retroactive War Crimes Protection

[Rach3]

"Retroactive War Crimes Protection"

Retroactive War Crime Protection Proposed

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration drafted amendments to the War Crimes Act that would retroactively protect policymakers from possible criminal charges for authorizing any humiliating and degrading treatment of detainees, according to lawyers who have seen the proposal.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-War-Crimes.html?_r=1&oref=login

So hypothetically, if they had (which they didn't) done something horribly inhuman and grossly illegal, they would be retroactively immunized. Of course there's no reason to be suspicious. This is just a routine legislation which will never be used, so no reason to oppose it.

Two attorneys said that the draft is in the revision stage but that the administration seems intent on pushing forward the draft's major points in Congress after Labor Day. The two attorneys spoke on condition of anonymity because their sources did not authorize them to release the information.

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

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-War-Crimes.html?_r=1&oref=login

 

[selfAdjoint]

The Bush presidency seems to assert
1) The president can do anything he likes and no law or constitutional limitation applies to him.
2) And he isn't legally responsible for any consequences either.

L'etat, c'est lui.

 

[Schrodinger's Dog]

Zut alors, mon dieu, c'est incroyable! Just kidding.

I agree he is the state, it sounds very faccist, but I wouldn't go so far as to compare it to any government in history.

Neocons est mais un mal transitoire. J'espere, sincerement.

I'm hoping that a more tolerant government will previal in the US, one that will repair the damage Bush has so evidently done both at home and in the Middle East.