Posted on 12/15/2003 7:00:43 AM PST by truthandlife
Well, simple-minded Katie only posited that opinion based on the fact that they caught him hiding in that tiny spider hole, where he couldn't really communicate with anybody.
Obviously, when he was actually in the hole, he wasn't doing much of anything besides trying to be... oh, how would Elmer Fudd put it? ...."vewy, vewy quiet..."
However, he wasn't living in the hole. He was just hiding because he was afraid of all those scary guys in desert camo hunting for him. And none of them were named Elmer Fudd.
Terrorists of course do not have a responsible chain of command; they do not have a justice system nor rules of engagement governing their behavior, and by definition terrorists use civilians and civilian assets as shields from which to shoot, or to prevent assets from being targetted. Terrorists do not walk around with their suicide belts visible because if they did they would be noticed and could not complete their missions. For the same reasons they do not carry identifying insignia or documents, nor do they wear uniforms setting them apart from the civilian population. They need to blend in with the civilian population in order to use the civilians for cover.
Hussein, by taking command of such terrorists, is a terrorist in his own right. He willingly chose to be an unlawful combatant, and therefore chose to discard any POW status he may have been afforded had he simply commanded his uniformed services and enforced appropriate rules of engagement.
Unlike al Qaeda, the Taliban did go through the trouble of providing identifying documents for many of their personnel, most of their personnel carried arms openly, and they did have a defined chain of command which could be held accountable. Unlike al qaeda terrorists, the Taliban government is able to claim its people and provide a contact through which the captors and the Red Cross could exchange information with the Taliban authorities.
A full uniform is not necessary; headgear can be sufficient or insignia, carrying arms openly, and upon capture the presentation of identifying documents and their REAL NAMES to the captors is a must. The men must be identifiable from civilians to even be considered POWs, and must have leaders who claim them.
Indeed, al Qaeda members typically refuse to give their real names but operate under alias; this makes them unlawful combatants. It also violates the obligations of a POW.
Al Qaeda tends not to come forward to label their 'troops' because al Qaeda counts on the peacetime justice system to foolishly treat them as common criminals, and so informing the world that the guy who was just captured was Colonel so-and-so in al Qaeda would end up getting him convicted. In wartime, however, this behavior puts them at a disadvantage because their personnel do not have the protections a soldier or militiaman would have. With al Qaeda, there is no recognized authority who can be held accountable for the prisoner's actions, no one to legally step forward to take responsibility for the prisoner, or take delivery of him upon his release.
This excludes them from consideration as POWs.
The definition, for Geneva Conventions purposes, is very lax. All it has to be is a certain defining article that is recognizable from a distance, like a bandana or a hat or a shirt with a standard color set.
Any visible measure to distinguish yourself from the civilians, so as to protect their safety, should count. Even the Taliban or the Baathist insurgents could have done this, had they so desired, but they opted to ignore the Conventions, shed their military appearance, and tried to blend in behind the civilians.
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