Sorry, just have to do one more post on Jeh Johnson’s prepared answers from the Senate Armed Services Committee ahead of his confirmation hearing to become Pentagon general counsel. While on many questions he says he needs to review what exactly his predecessors have written and how they’ve reached their conclusions, he also indicates a return to traditional understandings of fealty to the rule of law.

On a question about detainees not being “subject to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment,” he replies:

[T]his prohibition is in the best interest of the United States, the national security interests of the United States, and is consistent with fundamental American values.

He follows up by saying he’ll “review carefully” how his predecessors defined cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. On Judge Advocates-General of the services — many of whom tried to stand up to Donald Rumsfeld on torture — Johnson pledges that they should “play a prominent role… [on] matters related to the treatment of detainees.” He gives a simple “yes” when asked whether he supports the revised, Geneva Conventions-compliant Army field manual on interrogations and Pentagon directive on detainee treatment.

On Guantanamo: Johnson says he’ll “provide legal advice to the secretary of defense on the status of the Guantanamo detainees and determinations whether the United States should continue to hold such detainees.” Perhaps more importantly, given President-elect Obama’s apparent intent to close Guantanamo, here’s something Johnson says that’s germane to potential civil trials for Guantanamo detainees:

If confirmed, I anticipate looking carefully at whether use of coerced testimony is ever appropriate in the criminal trial of a detainee.

Crossposted to The Streak.