New Spotty award!

Barbara Frey, well-known human rights activist and academic, wins a Spotty for this letter in the Star Tribune today:

Torture memo contradicts Geneva

Kimberly Crockett [Pliers, ed.] and Peter A. [the Singing Coach, ed.] Swanson, in their Nov. 16 commentary billed as presenting "the realistic" point of view, actually seem quite naïve about how security policy is made.

By concluding that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to the "war on terrorism," the Yoo/Delahunty memo gave a signal to the intelligence community that there would be no legal consequences for acts tantamount to torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. The president specifically relied on their analysis in determining that Al-Qaida and Taliban detainees are "not legally entitled to" be treated humanely.

The Yoo/Delahunty analysis was wrong. Everyone is entitled to be treated humanely under U.S. and international law. Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions is the minimum standard for treatment in peacetime and in wartime, including the handling of common criminals or rebels. That law absolutely prohibits mutilation, cruel treatment and torture, as well as "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment."

Overlooking minimum international standards was bad law and resulted in bad policy.

BARBARA A. FREY,

DIRECTOR, HUMAN RIGHTS PROGRAM,

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, MINNEAPOLIS

Tags: Barbara Frey disses John Yoo over torture memos