Retired military officers push Bush on torture ban

By Vicki Allen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A group of retired military officers
urged President George W. Bush on Thursday to spell out how he
will enforce a ban on the torture of U.S.-held prisoners,
complaining he muddied the issue in a statement last month.

Bush reluctantly accepted the ban, pushed by Arizona
Republican Sen. John McCain, after scandals over abuse of
detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, harsh interrogations at
the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and reports the CIA
ran secret prisons abroad to hold terrorism suspects.

Retired military leaders including Marine Gen. Joseph Hoar,
who was U.S. Central Command commander-in-chief, said Bush
should clarify his stance after making a statement last month
that some experts said signaled he would bypass rules for
treatment of detainees when he saw fit, even after he signed
them into law.

The 22 former military officers in their letter said Bush
should ensure that “your administration speak with a consistent
voice to make clear that the United States now has a single
standard of conduct specified in law that governs all
interrogations.”

In a telephone news conference, Hoar said Bush’s statement
last month “diluted the impact of the McCain amendment” by
indicating “that there were going to be exceptions and the
president has the ability to do that.”

McCain, who endured torture as a war prisoner in Vietnam,
spearheaded the bill to set standards for detainees’ treatment
that won big majorities in the Senate and House of
Representatives.

Bush’s statement, issued on a Friday evening after he
signed the bill putting the amendment into law, said the
“executive branch shall construe (the law) in a manner
consistent with the authority of the president … as commander
in chief.”

The statement also said the White House’s approach would be
“consistent with the constitutional limitations on the judicial
power, which will assist in achieving the shared objective of
the Congress and the president … of protecting the American
people from further terrorist attacks.”

Elisa Massimino, Washington director of Human Rights First,
said Bush should “clarify the signing statement so there is no
question that the commander-in-chief considers this law binding
on all U.S. personnel.”

Human Rights First held a news conference on the letter
from retired generals and admirals.

Retired Rear Admiral John Hutson, a former Navy judge
advocate general, said the McCain amendment reinstated
long-standing U.S. policy on the treatment of prisoners. “Then
to have a signing statement in which that becomes blurred again
causes us great concern,” he said.