In an interview yesterday on the BBC (transcript), former senior State Department official Lawrence Wilkerson explained that Vice President Dick Cheney may have committed an “internatinational crime” in his advocacy of eliminating Geneva Convention protections on prisoners in the so-called “war on terror.” Wilkerson, who served as Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Collin Powell from 2002 to 2005 responded to a question by the BBC about whether or not the Vice President was guilty of a war crime by stating that “it was certainly a domestic crime to advocate terror and I would suspect that it is ... an international crime as well.” Interestingly, Wilkerson used to the term “terror” to refer to the systematic abuse and torture of prisoners in the custody of the United States.

Wilkerson has issued several criticisms of the Bush administration over the past few days, especially with regard to the treatment of detainees in the “war on terror.” Vice President Cheney has continued to advocate exemptions for the CIA in any anti-torture policy even as questions are raised about whether or not the CIA has killed prisoners in their custody. Meanwhile, the European Union has threatened sanctions against any EU country allowing the CIA to operate detention camps in their territory.