Geneva Convention may protect your identity if not your life

By Lee Russ

Wednesday, March 15, 2006 at 04:03 PM

As I've said before, I fully believe that this administration is dishonorable, and the dishonor spreads from top to bottom.

How do you feel about a claim by the U.S. military that the Geneva Conventions prevented it from commenting on whether the NY Times had identified the right Iraqi detainee as the person in the infamous Abu Ghraib picture of a hooded prisoner standing on a box, attached to electric wires?

That's right, the same military that the White House, through Alberto (the Slithy) Gonzales, decided not that long ago was not bound by the Geneva Conventions in their treatment of detainees.

Talk about selective application of laws!  Even for these people, this is a new low.

As Richard Cohen says in the Washington Post, "I guess it was once considered okay to abuse the prisoner and scare him half (or three-quarters) to death but not to identify him."

Hmmm.  Maybe that's the theory behind refusing to disclose the names of so many Gitmo detainees?  Or will be the theory, as soon as they think of it?