STANDARDS OF TREATMENT

Like most Americans and like the rest of the world, Sen. John McCain was outraged by disclosures that American soldiers abused or humiliated uncooperative Muslim prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2002 and 2003. Unlike most Americans, he knows about torture firsthand and he is in a position to prevent it from being inflicted on others. His torture-prevention amendments to the Department of Defense bill currently before the Senate deserve support.

Both amendments are co-sponsored by Republican Sens. Susan Collins, John Warner and Lindsey Graham and opposed by the White House, setting up an unusual intra-party fight over an especially contentious issue. One amendment would prevent cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of any DoD detainee unless specific issues of national security require the president to waive those protections.

A bill more vigorously opposed prevents any person detained by DoD from treatment not listed in the U.S. Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation. Proponents say this would standardize treatment and make clear what constitutes a violation. The White House says it is overly restrictive.

The bills come from extensive reports to the Senate Armed Services Committee, and include instances where the detainees were intimidated by dogs, made to wear women’s lingerie and that one was led around on a leash and forced to perform tricks. But with a half dozen deaths of detainees in the war on terrorism and corroborated instances of physical abuse and “serious violations” of the Geneva Conventions reported by the Red Cross starting in 2003, this is about more than humiliation or religious offense.

After the committee heard from Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall Schmidt that some of these practices were “approved interrogation techniques,” Sen. McCain responded, “They may be al-Qaida, they may be Taliban, they may be the worst people in the world, and I’m sure some of them are. But there are certain rules and international agreements the United States has agreed to, and that we will observe.”

He’s right, and the White House should want to assure that American soldiers in Iraq are not put at additional risk because of the behavior and decisions of commanding officers in charge of detainees in the war on terrorism.