Guantonamo

Originally posted by Dreamz
Good posts ECK, and I agree 100%.

Originally posted by Seekerof
Well its apparent that I need to re-post this information again:

"The ultimate reason to have legal rules defining combatant status is not simply to ensure that the right of combatants to employ vicarious violence is respected, but simultaneously to ensure, as far as possible, that such violence is not directed against civilians. The essence of combatant status is to be liable, at any time, to deliberate attack. The essence of civilian status is to be immune from deliberate attack. Any legal norm that expands the rights of civilians to function as combatants is certain to erode that basic immunity. In legal terms, what is good for the guerilla must inevitably be bad for the civil society within which he hides. To suppose otherwise is to imagine the legal equivalent of a perpetual motion machine, which seeks to draw a circle that cannot be closed, but must inevitably spiral in upon itself. A terrorist or other "illegal combatant" who trades upon his adversary's respect for the law is, in effect, using the law as a weapon. He cannot simultaneously use it as a shield, and he may well deprive those around him of its aegis as well."
"Illegal Combatants" and the Law of Armed Conflict'
Link:
www.ccc.nps.navy.mil...


"In February of this year, President Bush determined the posi-tion of the United States concerning at least some of thesequestions. In essence, as announced by the White HousePress Secretary on February 7, 2002, he decided that(1) The 1949 Geneva Convention concerning the treatmentof prisoners of war, to which both Afghanistan and theUnited States are Parties, applies to the armed conflict inAfghanistan between the Taliban and the United States;(2) That same Convention does not apply to the armed con-flict in Afghanistan and elsewhere between al Qaeda and theUnited States;(3) Neither captured Taliban personnel nor captured alQaeda personnel are entitled to be POWs under that Conven-tion; and(4) Nevertheless, all captured Taliban and al Qaeda person-nel are to be treated humanely, consistent with the generalprinciples of the Convention, and delegates of the Interna-tional Committee of the Red Cross may visit privately each detainee."
"The Taliban, al Qaeda, and the Determination of Illegal Combatants"
Link:
216.239.39.104...:xGc5a3zM6FUJ:www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/0/C82A7582AE20DCD1C1256D34004AEA41/%24File/George%2BAldrich_3 _final.pdf%3FOpenElement+illegal+combatants&hl=en&ie=UTF-8


"Illegal Combatants
The Issue: Supreme Court agrees to examine Guantanamo jurisdiction. Our View: This could lead to further constitutional review."
Link:
www.myinky.com...


"Illegal combatant"
Link:
en.wikipedia.org...

"Guantanamo Bay"
Link:
en2.wikipedia.org...

Excerpt:
"The peculiar legal status of Guantanamo Bay aids in these uses. Because sovereignty of Guantanamo Bay ultimately resides with Cuba, persons detained at Guantanamo are legally outside of the United States and do not have the Constitutional rights that they would have if they were held on United States territory (see Cuban American Bar azz'n, Inc. v. Christopher, 43 F.3d 1412 (11th Cir. 1995)). The U.S. has classified the prisoners held at Camp X-Ray as illegal combatants rather than prisoners of war, which would also have given them protection through the Geneva Conventions."

Post number: 270440, from the thread: "War Crimes" at Gitmo"

The "key" to this whole thing is the situation of Gitmo and the classification of the "detainees".


regards
seekerof

[Edited on 3-12-2003 by Seekerof]

Originally posted by wwviews
The worlds reaction to Guantanemo can be summed in another act of inumanity...Daniel Pearl.

The men who cut off his head, said they were doing it in retaliation to the treatment of the men in Cuba. The killers of Pearl, said they did not have the means to do what the US was doing ( sensory deprivation, mind torture, flying 23 hours kneeling and handcuffed with no toilets, etc etc ), so done the next best thing in their opinion.

Good article

~Messiah~

from seekerof
A terrorist or other "illegal combatant" who trades upon his adversary's respect for the law is, in effect, using the law as a weapon. He cannot simultaneously use it as a shield, and he may well deprive those around him of its aegis as well."