Bush ignored Pentagon lawyers over tactics in war on terror

[kskiska]

No consultation on detention without charge

The Bush administration routinely bypassed or overruled Pentagon experts on international law and the Geneva convention to construct a sweeping legal justification for harsh tactics in the war on terror, the Guardian has learnt.

In one instance, President George Bush's military order of November 13 2001, which denies prisoner-of-war status to captives from Afghanistan and allows their detention without charge or access to a lawyer at Guantánamo, was issued without any consultations with Pentagon lawyers, a former Pentagon official said.

(snip)

The military order issued by Mr Bush in November 2001 was the first such directive since the second world war, and the administration's failure to seek the Pentagon's advice on what would emerge as the entire system of detention at Guantánamo surprised Pentagon officials.

"That came like a bolt from the blue," the official said. "Neither I nor anyone I knew had any insight, any advance knowledge, or any opportunity to comment on the president's military order."

The Pentagon general counsel, William James Haynes, was also left out of the loop, another official said.

more…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guantanamo/story/0,13743,1234629,00.html

[MikeG]

1. W doesn't hold with fancy book learnin'

[PurityOfEssence]

3. How's he with handwriting on the wall?

We shall see. With any luck, he'll continue as he always has, which is to say: continue as he always has.

There was an interesting line in a documentary on Hitler (wish I could credit the writer) where someone said: "he was just so hot at the dice table for so long that he just didn't think he could lose."

They may think they can stuff this back into the bottle, and maybe they can, but even so, the next bottle will blow open faster and be uglier than this one. There's a little piece of me that wants him to suck all the money from the Republican Party, get re-elected (okay, ELECTED), but lose the House. Much as Impeachment is a wrenching ordeal, it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Didn't he say "I don't testify" to Russert?

[KoKo]

2. Wonder who the former "Pentagon Official" is:

"In one instance, President George Bush's military order of November 13 2001, which denies prisoner-of-war status to captives from Afghanistan and allows their detention without charge or access to a lawyer at Guantánamo, was issued without any consultations with Pentagon lawyers, a former Pentagon official said."

[GoBlue]

4. It's God swill...

and that's all that Georgie needs to know.