New army field manual delayed again.

[mburbank]

I'm sorry, wasn't the new field manual supposed to fix problems that led to torture instead of increasing them?



Army Rules Put on Hold
By Julian E. Barnes
The Los Angeles Times

Thursday 11 May 2006

The revised field manual seeks to permit harsher interrogations of terror suspects, which some lawmakers say violates the ban on torture.

Washington - The Pentagon has been forced to delay the release of its updated Army Field Manual on interrogation because of congressional opposition to several provisions, including one that would allow tougher techniques for unlawful combatants than for traditional prisoners of war.

The Defense Department's civilian leaders, who are overseeing the process of rewriting the manual, have long argued - along with the Bush administration - that the Geneva Convention does not apply to terrorists or irregular fighters. The United States needs greater flexibility when interrogating people who refuse to fight by the rules, they have said.

But some lawmakers think that creating different rules for enemy prisoners of war and irregular fighters contradicts the torture ban passed by Congress last year, which requires a "uniform standard" for treating detainees.

The ban was adopted after mounting worldwide criticism of U.S. detention practices in Iraq and Afghanistan and at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The issue has confronted the Bush administration abroad and at home, and the Supreme Court is expected to weigh in as early as next month.

The Pentagon began work on rewriting the Army Field Manual a year ago, after the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal. The new manual would replace a guide that critics said provided insufficient direction to military police and interrogators.

Lawmakers expected to see the new document last month. However, the Pentagon canceled those briefings and instead described the manual to only a handful of senior senators and aides. As the dispute with Congress has grown, the military has continued to delay the document's release - and defense officials say they do not know when they will release the new manual.

The specific interrogation practices in dispute remain classified. The military is rethinking whether to publicly release the list of do's and don'ts or to keep them secret.

The Pentagon has said it will treat captured terrorists humanely whether or not they are deemed to be protected under the Geneva Convention.

But lawmakers have blamed varying standards of treatment and vague regulations for contributing to abuses at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere.