Geneva Conventions

The Pentagon has concluded that the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay meets the standards for humane treatment of detainees established in the Geneva Convention accords.

Military judges threw out war-crimes cases Monday against the only detainees here who have been indicted, in rulings that suggest the hastily reassembled military tribunals have no jurisdiction over any of Guantanamo's 380 prisoners. In separate hearings, an Army colonel and a Navy captain granted motions to dismiss the cases because the 2006 Military Commissions Act that Congress passed last year gave the tribunals jurisdiction only over "unlawful alien enemy combatants."

The Pentagon has decided to omit from new detainee policies a key tenet of the Geneva Convention that explicitly bans "humiliating and degrading treatment," according to knowledgeable military officials, a step that would mark a further, potentially permanent, shift away from strict adherence to international human rights standards.

Stating that American law outweighs an international treaty, the Supreme Court said Wednesday that foreign criminals held in state prisons did not have a right to reopen their cases if their rights under the Vienna Convention had been violated. The 6-3 ruling spares state prison officials a major headache. If the high court had ruled the other way, thousands of state inmates who were not U.S. citizens could have sought to have their convictions reversed.

The Bush administration acknowledged Tuesday that it was legally obligated to apply Geneva Convention protections to detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, reversing a position it has held tightly for more than four years. But it declared that the shift would not significantly change the way it treated captives because it was already meeting that standard -- a position that put it at odds Tuesday with key Democratic as well as Republican members of Congress.

A new Bush administration plan for prosecuting accused terrorists held by the U.S. military would grant detainees some additional legal rights, but still permit the use of coerced confessions and prevent the accused from seeing classified evidence being used against them. Providing the most detailed White House response to a Supreme Court ruling that struck down President Bush's military commission system, Atty. Gen. Alberto R.

Bowing to critics of its tough interrogation policies, the Pentagon is issuing a new Army field manual that provides Geneva Convention protections for all detainees and eliminates a secret list of interrogation tactics. The manual, set for release today, also reverses an earlier decision to maintain two interrogation standards -- one for traditional prisoners of war and another for "unlawful combatants" captured during a conflict but not affiliated with a nation's military force.

The Bush administration's proposal for handling terrorism prisoners would undercut the Geneva Convention and weaken protections against harsh treatment of detainees ordered by the Supreme Court, congressional critics, including Republicans, said Tuesday.

A Republican-controlled Senate committee dealt a blow to President Bush's national security agenda Thursday, approving a bill that would expand the legal rights of terrorism detainees. The rebuke capped a day of bruising political combat in which Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) released a letter from Colin L. Powell, the president's former secretary of State, opposing Bush's proposal to allow more extreme methods of interrogation.

The nation's top intelligence official acknowledged Sunday that the CIA had used "tough" and "aggressive" interrogation techniques that were discontinued when the Supreme Court ruled that terrorism suspects are entitled to the protections of the Geneva Convention. Director of National Intelligence John D.