[Grovenet] The law

[Steele, Mike]

News reports today offer the following little tidbit:   "The Justice
Department
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/U.S.+Department+of+Just
ice?tid=informline>  sent a legal memorandum to the Pentagon
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/The+Pentagon?tid=inform
line>  in 2003 asserting that federal laws prohibiting assault, maiming
and other crimes did not apply to military interrogators who questioned
al-Qaeda
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Al+Qaeda?tid=informline
>  captives because the president's ultimate authority as commander in
chief overrode such statutes."

 

Hmmmm...but here's the standard military enlistment oath for enlisted
personnel and officers:  "I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I
will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against
all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and
allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President
of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me,
according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So
help me God."

 

Hmmm...let me see...the constitution comes first in line...the president
only later...and the Uniform Code of Military Justice does not permit
torture (waterboarding having been a prosecutable war crime in US
charges against Japanese war criminals)...

 

One wonders if this created an allegiance issue for those who received
the memorandum?

 

--Mike