Sen. Ken Salazar said today President George W. Bush’s efforts to legalize trying terror suspects before military tribunals would be a violation of the Geneva Conventions.
The international law was ratified in 1949 to protect prisoners of war from abuse and torture.
“It’s been the world standard for more than 50 years and for the president to undermine that standard is taking a step back,” said Salazar, D-Colorado, at a Denver press conference.
The Supreme Court earlier this year struck down the Bush administration’s plan for trying detainees at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Bush said it was critical to change the law to protect the intelligence community who are called on to question detainees to obtain vital information.
“We must provide our military and intelligence professionals with the tools they need to protect our country from another attack.” Bush said today.
“The reason they need those tools is because the enemy wants to attack us again,” the president said.
Bush said intelligence professionals need to be protected from being tried as war criminals.
Salazar joined a dissident group led by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. and backed by Colin Powell, Bush’s first-term secretary of state, in opposing Bush’s plan.
“It undermines the Geneva Conventions and will endanger our soldiers in this war and future wars,” Salazar said. “It will undermine the world coalition we will need to win the war on terror.”
Foreign ministers of the European Union today called on the United States to respect international law in handling terror suspects.
“What happens when any of our soldiers become a prisoner of war?” Salazar asked. “The moral high ground is we don’t accept torture.”
“The Geneva Conventions abhors torture and we need to send a strong warning to the administration that it needs to change course,” Salazar said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
