Thomas friedman is the chief forign correspondent - Term Paper Example

However, two protocols of Geneva conventions have not been ratified by the law of United States of America. Nevertheless, the U.S Uniform Code of Military Justice declares that torture should not be practiced by ensuring that prisoners must be treated humanly. The Military Code states that violation of Geneva contention is a crime. This is a clear indication that torture is not supported by Uniform Code of Military Justice since Geneva convention declares that prisoners are protected against torture; public curiosity, intimidation and insults .

Moreover, whoever commits torture is to be punished by life imprisonment or term imprisonment as stipulated by Uniform Code of Military Justice. The actions of U.S agents in 2002 at Abu Ghraib prison can be regarded as violation of Geneva accords as torturing actions were viewed during the U.S invasion. The torturing actions included: stripping people naked, poking people, pushing people, use of threatening dogs and depriving people of sleep. However, one can argue that such tactics were not torturing but inhuman punishments and acts of cruel which do not torture although the actions were not justified.

Also Geneva accords do not apply to Taliban detainees since the conflicts were international in scope and article three considers only an armed conflict but not a global character. Furthermore Taliban detainees are unlawful group hence could not be viewed as war prisoners. In addition, reliability of confession might have been obtained under torture hence questionable making the United States of America’s agents not responsible for acts of torture. One can make a conclusion that the problem occurred due to Geneva accords which were not specific and that the actions of United States’ agents were legal since they were handling unlawful group.

Moreover, ambiguous instructions were given to the agents since administration officials gave out