Bush :: Rewrite War Crimes Act

      That's right... He is afraid that he and some of his cabal might have to face war crimes charges, so he wants the 1996 law changed...   Make it so...   Poof...

Presto, We have a new clean and legal rubber-stamp congressional bypass of the Article 3 provision of the Geneva Convention.   They have to get it done before Congress changes hands back to the Democrats in November.

There are more than a few with the heart to fight for impeachment of this cabal of criminals.   Get shed of them...   We need to keep the laws and get rid of the crooks and bring our troops home from the nightmare that Bush has put them thru...   - fc

washingtonpost.com

War Crimes Act Changes Would Reduce Threat Of Prosecution

by R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 9, 2006; Page A01

The Bush administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees, CIA officers and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading war prisoners, according to U.S. officials and a copy of the amendments.

Officials say the amendments would alter a U.S. law passed in the mid-1990s that criminalized violations of the Geneva Conventions, a set of international treaties governing military conduct in wartime.

"People have gotten worried, thinking that it's quite likely they might be under a microscope," said a U.S. official. Foreigners are using accusations of unlawful U.S. behavior as a way to rein in American power, the official said, and the amendments are partly meant to fend this off.

"This removal of [any] reference to humiliating and degrading treatment will be perceived by experts and probably allies as 'rewriting' " the Geneva Conventions, said retired Army Lt. Col. Geoffrey S. Corn, who was recently chief of the war law branch of the Army's Office of the Judge Advocate General. Others said the changes could affect how foreigners treat U.S. soldiers.

The amendments would narrow the reach of the War Crimes Act, which now states in general terms that Americans can be prosecuted in federal criminal courts for violations of "Common Article 3" of the Geneva Conventions, which the United States ratified in 1949.

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