WASHINGTON - President Bush on Tuesday signed the law that legalizes the administration's shameful treatment of detainees suspected of terrorism.

The same measure also empowers the president to define torture. It's a sad legacy for America and its already-tarnished world image.

The new law - the Military Commissions Act of 2006 - establishes a system for trying suspects in military tribunals. It was enacted after the Supreme Court ruled last June that the administration plan for trials by military commissions violated U.S. and international law.

In effect, President Bush got all he wanted from a submissive GOP-dominated Congress and a few spineless Democratic lawmakers. The president on Tuesday did not issue his customary signing statement interpreting implementation of the law. He didn't have to because lawmakers on Capitol Hill had handed him total victory.