Gen. Patraeus: Close Gitmo, End Torture

Speaking with Radio Free Europe on Sunday, General David Patreaus came out with two very clear statements that are not likely to make former Vice President Dick Cheney very happy. In short, Patraeus is siding with President Barack Obama on the matters of closing Guantanamo Bay prison, and ending the government sanctioned practice of torture on detainees.

"I think, on balance, that those moves help [us]," said the chief of U.S. Central Command. "In fact, I have long been on record as having testified and also in helping write doctrine for interrogation techniques that are completely in line with the Geneva Convention. And as a division commander in Iraq in the early days, we put out guidance very early on to make sure that our soldiers, in fact, knew that we needed to stay within those guidelines.

"With respect ot Guantanamo," Patraeus added, "I think that the closure in a a responsible manner, obviously one that is certainly being worked out now by the Department of Justice--I talked to the Attorney General the other day [and] they have a very intensive effort ongoing to determine, indeed, what to do with the detainees who are left, how to deal with them in a legal way, and if continued incarceration is necessary--again, how to take that forward. But doing that in a responsible manner, I think, sends an important message to the world, as does the commitment of the United States to observe the Geneva Convention when it comes to the treatment of detainees."

Clearly, the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" violated the Geneva Conventions, just ask former Bush administration figures who will not be vacationing in Spain any time soon.