Free Republic

JUST WHAT WAR do Sens. John McCain, John Warner, Lindsey Graham and Susan Collins think the United States is fighting? Last week these four Republicans joined Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee in voting to prevent CIA officers who interrogate terror suspects from being any rougher on said suspects than Mary Poppins would be. The four argued that allowing U.S. operatives to be rough with terrorists during questioning would put our own forces in danger of being subjected to the same treatment. They were joined by former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who wrote in an open letter that...

Attempts to put limits on wartime behavior have been around since the beginning of recorded history and there have been numerous attempts to codify the rules of appropriate military conduct. In the sixth century BCE, Chinese warrior Sun Tzu suggested putting limits on the way that wars were conducted. Around 200 BCE, the notion of war crimes as such appeared in the Hindu code of Manu. In 1305, the Scottish national hero Sir William Wallace was tried for the wartime murder of civilians. Hugo Grotius wrote "On the Law of War and Peace" in 1625, focusing on the humanitarian treatment...

Former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell came out in opposition today to White House-sponsored legislation to create special military commissions that would try terrorist suspects, saying he rejects efforts to "redefine" a key provision of the Geneva Conventions. Powell, a retired Army general who formerly headed the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated his position in a letter to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), one of three Republican senators who are blocking President Bush's plan for military tribunals. The three -- who also include Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham...

OpenlyNonLiberal has put together a glossary to help in translating your NY Times and other liberal publications: Cease Fire: Terrorist re-armament opportunity Containment: Appeasement of terrorist dictators in order to defer solving the problem until the next administration

MOSCOW: The deadly Israeli bombing of Qana in southern Lebanon was a "gross violation" of international norms that confirms the need for an immediate ceasefire, Russia's foreign ministry said on Monday. The Qana bombing "clearly confirms the need to immediately end military activities, bloodletting and violence in Lebanon", foreign ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said. "We have repeatedly expressed our condemnation... of activities that make the civilian population suffer. Such 'mistakes' are a gross violation of fundamental norms of international humanitarian law," Kamynin added. Israel has faced widespread condemnation since its bombing raid that killed at least 52 people, including 30...

When I visited Israel nearly five years ago, I heard much about the perversity of suicide bombings, the treachery of Yasser Arafat and the threats of terrorism from the Gaza Strip and West Bank. But one Western diplomat turned my attention in another direction. The Israel-Lebanon border, he told me, "could be a more serious flash point than the West Bank or Gaza Strip. What happens if Hezbollah, Syria, Iran or all three decide to stir the pot?" A few days later as I toured the border region with its Israeli army outposts, Hezbollah encampments, electronic fences and barbed wire,...

There is no democracy in the world that should tolerate missiles being fired at its cities without taking every reasonable step to stop the attacks. The big question raised by Israel's military actions in Lebanon is what is "reasonable." The answer, according to the laws of war, is that it is reasonable to attack military targets, so long as every effort is made to reduce civilian casualties. If the objectives cannot be achieved without some civilian casualties, these must be "proportional" to the civilian casualties that would be prevented by the military action. This is all well and good...

WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) -- U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales suggested Congress could ratify the administration's military tribunal procedure for trying Guantanamo detainees. Gonzales made the point in an exchange with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the New York Times reported. "The question is very specific," Leahy said. "Is it the administration's position, as one of your assistants suggested, that we should simply ratify the military-commission procedures that the president designed and the Supreme Court struck down in Hamdan?" "That would certainly be one alternative that Congress could consider, Senator Leahy," Gonzales answered. The attorney general also told Sen. Arlen Specter,...

by Mark Finkelstein July 14, 2006 - 11:28. Somebody please tell me what is funny or - more importantly - true about this cartoon. Is this really the view of Dan Wasserman and by extension the paper he works for - the Boston Globe? Do Wasserman and the Globe really believe that, in his heart, President George W. Bush is a torture-master of medieval proportions? Do they truly think that only international agreements and court decisions stand between him and the barbarous flaying of prisoners? Just what is the point, other than to express hatred and contempt for the sitting...

Slain soldier's brother skeptical of group's claim He doubts that Menchaca, a 2nd soldier could have been linked to rape suspects HARLINGEN - The brother of slain Army Pfc. Kristian Menchaca said Tuesday that he is skeptical of an al-Qaida-linked group's claim that it killed Menchaca and another U.S. soldier more than three months after troops from their unit allegedly raped and killed a young Iraqi woman. Julio Cesar Vasquez, the older brother of Menchaca, said he does not think the suspected al-Qaida insurgents could have linked the two slain soldiers to the rape suspects. ''It could be, but how...

Less than twenty years ago there was an attempt to explicitly expand the Geneva Conventions to cover terrorists. It was rejected by the United States and its then President, Ronald Reagan: Message to the Senate Transmitting a Protocol to the 1949 Geneva ConventionsJanuary 29, 1987To the Senate of the United States:I transmit herewith, for the advice and consent of the Senate to ratification, Protocol II Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, concluded at Geneva on June 10, 1977. I also enclose for the information of the Senate the report of the Department of State on the Protocol.The...

Because the Hamdan case was not up on my favorite research site at Cornell Law School early this morning, I read the press coverage first and the decisions afterward. The press has only a superficial understanding of the case, and missed the most important aspect of the decision. The case is Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, No. No. 05–184, June 29, 2006. Source: http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/05-184.ZS.html The Christian Science Monitor gets the facial decision correctly: The court ruled 5-to-3 Thursday that Mr. Bush acted outside his authority when he ordered Al Qaeda suspects to stand trial before these specially organized military commissions. The ruling...

snip…Privates Tucker and Menchaca were not simply ambushed, taken prisoner and killed. "The torture was something unnatural," said Major General Abdul Azziz Mohammed Jassim of Iraq's Defense Ministry, hinting at the state of the soldiers' remains. The corpses were so mutilated that they could be positively identified only through DNA testing. Here, then, is the enemy we face in Iraq: not nationalists or extremists or even fanatics, but something like a band of real-life Hannibal Lecters for whom human slaughter is both business and religious fulfillment. Following the killing, an Internet statement said to be from the Mujahadeen Shura Council...

In reading Letters to the Editor in many newspapers, I find that there are many people who try to compare the Terrorist war with WWII and want us to treat captured terrorists the same way we treated German POWs in the 40s. As a WWII combat veteran, I can state that with all previous wars, we had national, uniformed nations fighting each other. Even with bombings, civilians had sufficient warnings so that they could escape to bomb shelters whether in London or Berlin. Prisoners of war were treated with the Geneva accords in mind. Today none of this “gentlemen’s war”...

Swiss revisit rules of war swissinfo October 8, 2002 11:27 AM The status of prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay has fuelled debate over humanitarian law (Keystone Archive) Switzerland is to convene an international conference aimed at updating the Geneva Conventions to take account of terrorism. But the depositary state of the conventions has made it clear that the principles of international humanitarian law are not open to negotiation. Reaffirming the principles does not mean reforming them. Peter Maurer, Swiss Foreign Ministry Swiss authorities said that the conference – set for January 27 - would examine the application of the...

Canadian troops in Afghanistan have been told the Geneva Conventions and Canadian regulations regarding the rights of prisoners of war don't apply to Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters captured on the battlefield. That decision strips detainees of key rights and protections under the rules of war, including the right to be released at the end of the conflict and not to be held criminally liable for lawful combat. “The whole purpose of those regulations is to know if Geneva applies,” said Amir Attaran, a law professor at the University of Ottawa who has been pressing the Defence Department for details of...

Syria demands humanitarian access to Golan Damscus says it will oppose emergency service emblem agreement unless it can send 'humanitarian workers' to Golan The approval of a new emblem allowing Israelis to join the Red Cross movement was held up Tuesday by Syria's demand that Israel allow its humanitarian workers into the Golan Heights. The move could delay until at least Wednesday a decision by the 192 signatories of the Geneva Conventions on a "Red crystal" Emblem that Israeli paramedics could use in place of the red cross or Muslim red crescent. Israel's Magen David Adom - or Red Shield...

E-mail Author Author Archive Send to a Friend Version November 08, 2005, 6:19 p.m. Slouching Toward Pampering the Enemy Military tribunals are nothing new. I would not have thought that four short years after 9/11, two branches of the federal government would be taking what are historically extraordinary measures to grant unprecedented due-process rights to unlawful enemy combatants held overseas. In 1950, in Johnson v. Eisentrager, the Supreme Court held it did not have the authority to take up a challenge by 21 German nationals held in China, who were tried and convicted by U.S. military tribunals. In 2004,...

It’s Geneva Conventions Time ! CNN – and any newsreader who can find a microphone and camera – is about to have a cow ! Oooh ! Ooooh !! Oooooh !!! (Newsreader looks shocked ) The Geneva Conventions have been violated (newsreader looks stern) by American Troops - (newsreader frowns) In Afghanistan !!! (Newsreader bites lip,pretends to look reluctant.) Let’s go to the video ! (Studio camera catches newsreader’s triumphant smile just before tape begins.) Let’s see what all the fuss – and newsroom joy – is about , okay ? On October 1st, troops who were part of a...

It’s Geneva Conventions Time ! CNN – and any newsreader who can find a microphone and camera – is about to have a cow ! Oooh ! Ooooh !! Oooooh !!! (Newsreader looks shocked ) The Geneva Conventions have been violated (newsreader looks stern) by American Troops - (newsreader frowns) In Afghanistan !!! (Newsreader bites lip,pretends to look reluctant.) Let’s go to the video ! (Studio camera catches newsreader’s triumphant smile just before tape begins.) Let’s see what all the fuss – and newsroom joy – is about , okay ? On October 1st, troops who were part of a...