The American Gulag: US orders all 'detainees' to be treated according to article 3 of the Geneva Convention
In the wake of the US Supreme Court decision striking down the US government's treatment of detainees and specifying that they must be accorded their rights under the Geneva Convention the government has announced that all prisoners will be treated according to article 3 of the convention. This is very surprising but very welcome news. Not to be cynical, but the statement by the administration spokesman Tony Snow does give some cause to believe that this is just a election year public relations ploy: "Snow insisted that all U.S. detainees have been treated humanely. Still, he said, 'We want to get it right.' 'It's not really a reversal of policy,' Snow asserted, calling the Supreme Court decision 'complex.'"
If this is not a reversal of policy, if as Mr. Snow states, 'all US detainees have been treated humanely', does this mean there will be no change in how the detainees are being treated? Does this mean that the US will continue to treat detainees in the future as humanely as they have been treated in the past?
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