‘Anti-torture treaties do not apply to al-Qaida’

THE confidential US Justice Department memos criticised by Democrats as laying the legal foundation for Iraqi prisoner abuses were aimed mainly at showing that international treaties banning torture do not apply to al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners, Bush administration officials say.

The department’s lawyers concluded that Taliban and al-Qaida fighters are not protected by the Geneva Conventions because they do not satisfy four main conditions of the treaty itself. Those include requirements to obey laws of war, wear insignia recognisable from a distance and operate under the command of a responsible individual.

Iraqi prisoners are protected under the treaty partly because Iraq is a participating nation in the Geneva Conventions and the US is an occupying power.