By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The United States seeks to comply "fully" with the obligations of the Geneva Conventions with respect to the treatment of prisoners of war and security prisoners in Iraq, says Alberto Gonzales, White House Counsel to President Bush.

In a May 8 letter to the Washington Post, Gonzales said the reported abuses against the prisoners being held at the Abu Ghraib prison were "abhorrent and completely unacceptable." Gonzales said that all Americans, and especially members of the U.S. armed forces, share in the "outrage and sadness of knowing that abuses occurred."

The letter by Gonzales was in response to a May 6 Post editorial that he said incorrectly stated that the Pentagon ruled that the United States would not be bound by the Geneva Conventions. Rather, the White House Counsel said, it is "wrong to imply" that the abuses at Abu Ghraib "occurred in whole or in part because the United States has ruled itself as not bound by the Geneva Convention, because no such ruling has been made."

The Post editorial, entitled "Mr. Rumsfeld's Responsibility," asserted that the Pentagon "ruled that the United States would no longer be bound by the Geneva Conventions; that Army regulations on the interrogation of prisoners would not be observed; and that many detainees would be held incommunicado and without any independent mechanism of review."

But Gonzales said "there should be no doubt in anyone's mind that the United States fully recognizes its obligations under the Geneva Conventions." He added that the U.S. Department of Defense is conducting a full investigation of the reported abuses and "will hold accountable anyone found responsible."

With respect to the war on terror, Gonzales said President Bush determined in February 2002, with the advice of his national security team, that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to al Qaeda and that, under the Third Geneva Convention, Taliban detainees are not entitled to prisoner of war status.

But at the same time, Gonzales said the president ordered that U.S. armed forces treat detainees "humanely and, to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity, in a manner consistent with the principles of the Third Geneva Convention."

Gonzales said that "nothing about these decisions concerning al Qaeda and the Taliban provided any license or encouragement for what occurred at Abu Ghraib."