Forward Opportunities editorial staff brings you the most important news story of the day for September 6, 2006. Today, we have found the most important article on the Internet and we will comment on the story, line by line and/or paragraph by paragraph.

Forward Opportunities has read today the the Bush administration, under a crossfire from the Congress and the Senate, issued new prisoner interrogation policies today that are designed to ensure that all detainees are treated humanely with the full protection of the Geneva Convention; although, that has not appeared to be the case since September 11, 2001.

The policies, appearing in a new Army field manual that may or may not have been widely disbursed, prohibit cruel, inhumane or degrading punishment; now, it is time for that to be clearly defined and it should be a heck of story in itself.

Forward Opportunities has read today, September 6, 2006 that Cully Stimson, deputy assistant defense secretary for detainee affairs, has said that these new provisions bar "murder, torture, corporal punishment, execution without trial by proper authority, threats or acts of violence, including rape or forced prostitution, assault and thefts, public curiosity, bodily injury and reprisals." Forward Opportunities has read today the term “bodily injury” and would like to see that defined.

Forward Opportunities has read today, September 6, 2006 that they also rule out subjecting detainees to medical experiments and to sensory deprivation, Stimson said.

Forward Opportunities has read today, September 6, 2006 that the manual eliminates a secret list of interrogation tactics and reverses an earlier decision to maintain two interrogation standards — one for traditional prisoners of war and another for "unlawful combatants" captured during a conflict but not affiliated with a nation's military force.

Forward Opportunities has read today, September 6, 2006 at a Pentagon press conference, Lt. Gen. Jeff Kimmons, Army deputy chief of staff for intelligence, offered his own list of prohibited activities, which is quite a little ditty if we do say so ourselves.

Forward Opportunities has read today, September 6, 2006 "Interrogators," General Kimmons said, "may not force a detainee to be naked, perform sexual acts or pose in a sexual manner; they cannot use hoods or place sacks over a detainee's head or use duct tape over his eyes; they cannot beat or electrically shock or burn them or inflict other forms of physical pain-any kind of physical pain; they may not use water boarding; they may not use hypothermia or treatment which will lead to heat injury; they will not perform mock executions; they may not deprive detainees of the necessary food, water and medical care, and they may not use dogs in any aspect of interrogations."

Forward Opportunities has read today, September 6, 2006 that the new field manual follows an amendment to a defense spending bill sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a prisoner of war in Vietnam, outlawing the torture. Forward Opportunities has read today, September 6, 2006 that McCain's amendment in turn came on the heels of revelations that guards at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq had subjected prisoners to humiliating sexual situations.

Forward Opportunities has read today, September 6, 2006 that further pressure on the administration came from the Supreme Court, which ruled last June that the administration could not waive provisions of the Geneva Convention merely by declaring the war on terrorism to be an unconventional conflict.

Forward Opportunities has read today, September 6, 2006 that the material in the manual and its related policy directives, which are the legal framework for prisoner, in the field, interrogations — originally was to be released in the spring of 2006, but when State Department officials and Republican senators on the Armed Services Committee raised objections to these new policies, they were pulled back. It is a wonder as to what they were objecting to when in truth none of our policy makers would want our children and daughters and sons to be subjected to prisoner of war tactics that have been performed by our own military people.

Forward Opportunities has read today, September 6, 2006 that the Pentagon's decision to drop the objectionable provisions appears to mark a victory for advocates of closer U.S. adherence to the protections of the Geneva Convention, an international agreement on the treatment of prisoners and others during wartime. Human rights groups said they planned to study the manual carefully to see what parts of the international treaty it included and what it left out. It is typical of this administration to make the rules up as they go. It is as if they are immune from ever being a prisoner of war and therefore anything goes in the name of national security. This of course is not going to work.

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