Sneaking torture back into the Army Field Manual

Via Truthout, Julian Barnes at the LA Times tells us that the Pentagon was trying to sneak torture techniques back into it's Army Field Manual on interrogation, but faced congressional opposition.

Washington - The Pentagon has been forced to delay the release of its updated Army Field Manual on interrogation because of congressional opposition to several provisions, including one that would allow tougher techniques for unlawful combatants than for traditional prisoners of war.

The Defense Department's civilian leaders, who are overseeing the process of rewriting the manual, have long argued - along with the Bush administration - that the Geneva Convention does not apply to terrorists or irregular fighters. The United States needs greater flexibility when interrogating people who refuse to fight by the rules, they have said.

But some lawmakers think that creating different rules for enemy prisoners of war and irregular fighters contradicts the torture ban passed by Congress last year, which requires a "uniform standard" for treating detainees.

The ban was adopted after mounting worldwide criticism of U.S. detention practices in Iraq and Afghanistan and at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The issue has confronted the Bush administration abroad and at home, and the Supreme Court is expected to weigh in as early as next month.

Frankly, I don't understand why the Bushies are so enamored of torture. I mean even if you discount the moral issues since it's clear the Bushies have no morals, everyone who knows anything about it says it doesn't produce reliable intelligence. If it doesn't work and it's unpopular, why do it?

Ooops, I forgot. If I don't catch myself here, I'm sure ChiTom will remind me that nobody in the Bush administration has ever tried to do anything that would actually work.