OPINION & EDITORIAL
U.S. must set the standard in the treatment of prisoners of war
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Also by Rob Deters:
- SUVs and Earth Day do not mix (April 24, 2003)
- Lawlessness reigns in halls of Congress (April 6, 2005)
Related Stories:
- Rights forgotten, torture unjustified (September 25, 2006)
- U.S. not above the law (February 4, 2002)
- Guantanamo's end an unsolved misery (October 8, 2007)
- Those thugs (February 12, 2002)
- Camp X-Ray, not Camp Grenada (November 20, 2003)
by Rob Deters
Thursday, November 20, 2003
The Bush administration is attempting legal terrorism.
Now that I have your attention, I shall explain.
The detainees in Guantanamo Bay are pretty much being held at the sole discretion of President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld. This is in violation of Article 5 of the Geneva Convention, which says that the decision to rule that someone is a prisoner of war is the duty of the judiciary, not the executive branch. Therefore, under international law President Bush has violated the Geneva Convention by deciding that the detainees in Guantanamo Bay are not prisoners of war.
Of course, since the election, the Bush administration has not concerned itself with following the law.
Let me be clear. The detainees in Cuba are not nice people. Probably. We have no way of knowing, though, do we? Since no one can talk to or visit them, and very few people even know whom they are, they could be Pashtun sheep farmers in the wrong place at the wrong time. That may be unlikely, but you cannot prove me wrong, can you?
And why? The Bush administration is afraid of the truth. It is pretty sure these Taliban fighters were up to no good. But Bush and Rumsfeld worry that if these detainees actually had to go through a legal process, everyone would find out exactly what many suspect: They are not all illegal fighters.
At the time these detainees were captured, they could have posed a very real threat to U.S. forces. If they did — if they were engaged in armed conflict with us — then treat them like prisoners of war.
The Geneva Convention states, “Should any doubt arise as to whether persons, having committed a belligerent act and having fallen into the hands of the enemy, belong to any of the categories enumerated in Article 4, such persons shall enjoy the protection of the present Convention until such time as their status has been determined by a competent tribunal.”
What does this mean? The two-year waiting period the detainees have undergone has been a clear violation of the Geneva Convention. The complete lack of action by the Bush administration is a blatant disregard of international law.
To ignore the Geneva Convention is a gigantic hypocrisy. The Bush administration even does this at the peril of our troops. After all, if the United States refuses to play by the rules, why will anyone else?
The foreign fighters and resistance operatives in Iraq probably know about Guantanamo Bay. It is probably used as a symbol of American arrogance and double standards. If U.S. forces are taken prisoner and treated contrary to the rules of the Geneva Convention, the precedent will be set by us, not them.
Unlike scaremongers like my colleague, I believe the U.S. Constitution and international laws are strong enough to deal with these prisoners. I don’t feel we need to jettison the rule of law at a time of war to deal with an extraordinary threat.
If the United States can’t defend itself with the Constitution, then why are we fighting so hard to defend it?
Conservatives reveal their true colors when talking about this issue. It sounds real tough when you say terrorists should be denied their rights, but it sounds a lot less rational when you consider how it shreds the very tenets of our society. Disregarding our own Constitution or the rules of the Geneva Convention (which we were instrumental in creating) really displays a lack or respect for democracy or the rule of law.
The United States should be a shining example of how to deal with extremists by doing it our way, not theirs. Instead of creating a black hole of legality where no justice can shine, we must judge these people with our laws and our system of jurisprudence.
Calling for anything else is tyranny, pure and simple.
The detainees in Guantanamo, if guilty of crimes against the United States, absolutely need to be punished.
But if it cannot be proven they raised arms against the United States (and it is important to know that hundreds have been sent back to Afghanistan), then we ought to release them and hope our treatment does not turn them into what we feared they were — our enemy.
But look at the Pentagon! Look at Ground Zero and never, ever forget, they say. I have not forgotten. I know what my country stands for. It stands for the fair treatment of our enemies, or we become no better than them. It stands for the rule of law, instead of the rule of a despot. It stands for respecting institutions instead of the whims of zealots.
The Bush administration is lowering itself to a morally murky place by denying these detainees any rights whatsoever.
Anyone too willing to heed the call of those who would desecrate our Constitution must not be afraid of being judged harshly by history. I, for one, refuse to go down without a fight.
Rob Deters (rvdeters@wisc.edu) is a second-year law student.
