The Pentagon breaks with Bush and says that that prisoners at Guantánamo should be protected by the Geneva convention

12.48.25pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 12th Jul 2006

Prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay

The Pentagon yesterday said that prisoners at Guantánamo and elsewhere in US military custody around the world would be granted the protections of the Geneva convention.

Gordon England, second in command at the Pentagon, has written in a memo "I request that you promptly review all relevant directives, regulations, policies, practices and procedures to bring them in line with protections under article three of the Geneva convention,". Article three outlaws torture and humiliating and degrading treatment, and says prisoners are entitled to a hearing by a regularly constituted court.

The memo is a direct result of the Supreme Court;s decision last month which ruled that the Bush administration's military tribunals for the detainees were illegal.