Months after Haynes resigned his post, administration officials now are debating whether to follow Bellinger's recommendation on the standard, an addendum to the Geneva Convention officially known as Article 75 of Protocol 1.
Adopting the standard would show that the U.S. has "turned a page" in how it treats detainees, said Matthew C. Waxman, who worked with Bellinger at the State Department before becoming a Columbia University law professor.
"The U.S. used to set the gold standard," Waxman said. "We should strive to get there again by drawing sensible lines and persuading others to use them. And you can't do that if you do not acknowledge the lines exist."
Bellinger, who is close to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, has clashed for years with administration hawks, first as the lawyer for the White House National Security Council and then as legal advisor at the State Department.
Beginning early in the Bush administration, Cheney's office sought to translate its expansive view of presidential powers into the adoption of harsh interrogation practices, a secret detention system, ad hoc terrorism trials and increased domestic surveillance. The administration argued that terrorism detainees are unlawful combatants not covered by the Geneva Convention.
The policies met with widespread condemnation from American human rights groups and many international leaders. The initiatives also met resistance from high-ranking officials at the FBI, Justice Department, State Department and elsewhere. Even the Bush administration's harshest outside critics believe the internal resistance ultimately had a positive effect.
"From the point of the view of critics of the administration, things have been quite bad," said Tom Malinowski, the Washington advocacy director of Human Rights Watch. "The question is, would they have been worse if not for the efforts of more moderate voices within the administration? My gut feeling is they would have been worse."
Article 75 includes provisions designed to ensure fair trials. It also bans corporal punishment, mental torture and violence to the "physical or mental well-being" of detainees. The protocol was never ratified by the Senate. But backers of Bellinger's proposal believe that presidential recognition of the addendum's standards would boost U.S. standing on the issue.
