Torture idea is a terrorist victory

Wednesday, June 9, 2004

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD

New memos show the terrorists have done much greater damage to America than suspected. Top U.S. officials came to believe that, in fighting al-Qaida, they were not bound by the Geneva Conventions and federal anti-torture law.

The high-level articulation of such views represents a clearcut victory for terrorists in undermining America's conceptions of morality, international law and its own role as a beacon for human rights.

The harsh kind of treatment of prisoners seen in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay received expansive justification in a March 2003 memo prepared for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The memo first revealed by The Wall Street Journal says the president is constitutionally able to order any interrogation methods.

A State Department attorney argued against the views of the memo, which dealt with Guantanamo. Secretary of State Colin Powell knows that our treatment of prisoners can influence how U.S. troops are treated.

Pentagon officials point out that the March memorandum was supplanted by a final order in April from Rumsfeld. But the trend of thinking behind the final orders seems to indicate a defense secretary looking to wipe away traditional strictures, not uphold them.

If President Bush is serious about the values he has espoused, he will finally fire Rumsfeld and many of those around him. The president also ought to look closely for any role by Vice President Dick Cheney, whose counsel was involved in studying the issues.

Whether or not the president was part of discussions that led directly or indirectly to the harsh treatment of prisoners, he must clearly restate our commitment to humane conduct in war. And he should reconsider policies opposing the International Criminal Court's jurisdiction over U.S. troops. The emerging insights into administration policy suggest the reason for opposition to the court wasn't how it could affect an isolated soldier, but how international law might limit official conduct.

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