The Geneva Convention DOES NOT say : You can't rip toenails out

[Solly Mack]

Neither does the revised War Crimes Act of 1996 - revised to accommodate Bush's practice of torture -the original War Crimes Act said ANY breach of the Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention was a violation.

Additional source stating the WCA of 1996 has been revised to reflect the changes Bush wanted so he could continue his torture program.

The revised WCA of 1996 says any "grave" breach is a violation of Common Article 3 - and what constitutes a "grave breach" is now to be defined by Bush.

The Convention Against Torture doesn't say you can't.
The Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 doesn't say you can't.
The Military Commissions Act of 2006 doesn't say you can't.

None of the above state that a person can't:

- rub a detainees face in feces.
- stack naked detainees in pyramids
- use dogs to intimidate and terrorize detainees
- hang detainees from the ceiling by their shoulders



So I guess none of the above count as torture or 'outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment'.

What's that you say? The above fall under the categories of torture and 'outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment'?

Oooh..

But let's say I wanted to do those things anyway - couldn't I just claim they weren't prohibited because no law or treaty explicitly spells out each and every form of torture or 'outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment' that can be thought of? - so that gives me a lot of leeway on what I can do, yes?

And if someone says what I am doing is illegal, how can I truly be held accountable if the law and treaties didn't say, explicitly, that I couldn't do it? If they didn't spell out each and every way a person can be tortured or degraded or humiliated, how can you say I'm torturing them because I rip their toenails out?


After all, you didn't say I couldn't rip their toenails out - you only said I couldn't torture them.

And if toe-nails grow back they aren't really being mutilated, so you can't say I'm mutilating them either.


This is precisely the logic - defense - Bush is using about water-boarding.

And people are falling for it. Worse, some in Congress are playing along with it.

If Bush can make Congress continuously define torture, then Bush will continuously use any and all forms of torture and then claim it's not torture because the laws and treaties didn't spell it out as torture.

It's a game to get away with torturing.


And people are falling for it. Worse, some in Congress continue to play along with it.


People have the capacity for coming up with all manner of ways to abuse and torture other people - of ways to enact 'outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment' - so stating every single way a person can be tortured or abused or degraded or humiliated is impossible.

Playing Bush's game of - define inhuman, define cruel, define torture, define humiliating, define degrading, define abuse - does nothing but enable him to continue his war crimes.


Stop falling for it.