Minimum standards
Truthout
by William Rivers Pitt
07/12/06
BBC News reported it this way: 'All US military detainees, including those at Guantanamo Bay, are to be treated in line with the minimum standards of the Geneva Conventions. The White House announced the shift in policy on Tuesday, almost two weeks after the US Supreme Court ruled that the conventions applied to detainees.' A small thing, one would think. We have been told time and again, after all, that we are engaged in a 'War on Terror,' and the rules of war should therefore apply. The fact that we are also fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan further simplifies the issue. With the Bush administration, however, nothing is so straightforward. The administration argument, on the surface, has been that because 'terrorists' are affiliated with no official government, they do not fall under the umbrella of Geneva protections. The real reason for the denial of protections, though, was the Cheney-born insistence that the powers of the executive are plenary and not to be restricted in any way. Holding people indefinitely without trial while subjecting them to torture, therefore, was a marvelous way to establish the precedent of limitless power...
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071206J.shtml
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
by William Rivers Pitt
07/12/06
BBC News reported it this way: 'All US military detainees, including those at Guantanamo Bay, are to be treated in line with the minimum standards of the Geneva Conventions. The White House announced the shift in policy on Tuesday, almost two weeks after the US Supreme Court ruled that the conventions applied to detainees.' A small thing, one would think. We have been told time and again, after all, that we are engaged in a 'War on Terror,' and the rules of war should therefore apply. The fact that we are also fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan further simplifies the issue. With the Bush administration, however, nothing is so straightforward. The administration argument, on the surface, has been that because 'terrorists' are affiliated with no official government, they do not fall under the umbrella of Geneva protections. The real reason for the denial of protections, though, was the Cheney-born insistence that the powers of the executive are plenary and not to be restricted in any way. Holding people indefinitely without trial while subjecting them to torture, therefore, was a marvelous way to establish the precedent of limitless power...
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071206J.shtml
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
rudkla - 13. Jul, 16:07
