A new version of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" opened in Washington this month.
The good was U.S. District Judge James Robertson's ruling that the military commissions used at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to prosecute detainees are unlawfully constituted. His ruling challenged the novel "combatant status review tribunals" on grounds that they deny accused terrorists and other detainees hearings to determine their prisoner of war status, as required by international law.
The bad was President Bush's nomination of Alberto R. Gonzales as attorney general. Gonzales was a key contributor to the administration's legal rationale for using torture and other questionable interrogation methods on terrorist suspects.
And the ugly was departing Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft's remarks to a Federalist Society convention that the judiciary, including the U.S. Supreme Court, should cease "oversight and second-guessing of presidential determinations" on terrorism and treaty law "in a time of war."
Fortunately, Ashcroft is leaving town, and Gonzales has an opportunity to bring administration policy closer into line with international law and the Geneva Convention. The question is, will he do it?
Since the war on terror was declared, the administration has invoked the law of war to prevent accused terrorists from being subject to criminal law procedures. Through such flawed creations as the military commissions, the Bush team has undermined U.S. adherence to international law and put at risk any American service member captured abroad.
The Supreme Court and other federal courts have recently begun to roll back this legal strategy that denies detainees due-process rights. The administration should act independently to repair the damage it has done and uphold the one value -- rule of law -- that unites Americans and the world. Here's how to start:
The Pentagon should cut its losses and dismantle the military commissions. If any detainees are to be prosecuted for war crimes, the proceedings should be comparable to a court-martial. Terrorism cases should be prosecuted in federal criminal courts.
At his confirmation hearings, Gonzales should pledge that, as attorney general, he will repudiate his "torture memoranda" and promise that the future treatment and interrogation of terrorist suspects will comply with widely accepted interpretations of the Convention Against Torture, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Geneva Convention and relevant international customary law long accepted by the U.S.
