Torture policies

On May 25, President Bush stood in the East Room of the White House next to Tony Blair and expressed regret that US soldiers tortured and mistreated detainees in Iraq:

And I think the biggest mistake that's happened so far, at least from our country's involvement in Iraq is Abu Ghraib. We've been paying for that for a long period of time.

And perhaps we'll pay for more, because the Pentagon wants to lose the Geneva Conventions prohibition on "humiliating and degrading treatment" in the basic Army Field Manual. What about the McCain Amendment, you may ask, that encourages the use of the Field Manual's interrogation standard for all detainees for the precise reason that this standard will prevent degrading treatment? This new omission is ironic; the Pentagon is now suggesting that using the Field Manual as that standard is fine, as long as the prohibition on degrading treament is removed first.

More from the LA Times:

"The overall thinking," said the participant familiar with the defense debate, "is that they need the flexibility to apply cruel techniques if military necessity requires it."

and

The move to restore U.S. adherence to Article 3 was opposed by officials from Vice President Dick Cheney's office and by the Pentagon's intelligence arm, government sources said. David S. Addington, Cheney's chief of staff, and Stephen A. Cambone, Defense undersecretary for intelligence, said it would restrict the United States' ability to question detainees.

The new ommission means, however, that cruel and degrading techniques aren't just reserved for high-value interrogations, but that one of the benchmarks for treatment is removed for everyone deemed an unlawful combatant.