Soundness on detainees.(AT WAR II)

DEMOCRATS were happy to let John McCain and a few other Republicans do their dirty work on the issue of interrogation of terrorism detainees. They thought the Arizona Republican would make President Bush bend to what seemed to be his position that no coercive techniques whatsoever should be permitted against detainees. It turns out that that wasn't McCain's position, although he had been happy to let the press and human-rights groups portray it that way and to soak up the resulting adulation. In the end, McCain cut a sensible deal with the White House that will preserve the CIA interrogation program, prompting an overwhelming majority of Democrats to vote against the deal in both the House and the Senate.

The Supreme Court's Hamdan decision saying Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions applies to terrorists, and the McCain Amendment last year banning "cruel, inhuman, or degrading" treatment of terror detainees, had threatened to shut down that CIA interrogation program. The program had used coercive techniques, including such methods as placing terrorists in cold cells and "waterboarding" them (i.e., simulating drowning), to extract information that probably couldn't have been obtained through more gentle methods, at least not quickly.

The Bush administration wanted to clarify our obligation under Common Article 3 to keep most of the CIA methods legal. McCain objected to monkeying with the Geneva Conventions. So, instead, the same end will be achieved through clarifying "grave breaches" of Common Article 3 in the U.S. War Crimes Act and having President Bush issue an executive order determining what "non-grave breaches" are. This will preserve most of the CIA ...