This has since changed, thanks to a little ingenuity...
Posted on 01/09/2004 11:43:07 AM PST by HAL9000
US officials say the ousted Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, is being treated as an "enemy prisoner of war".A Pentagon spokesman said he was given the status as he was the leader of the "old regime's military forces".
The spokesman, Major Michael Shavers, said Saddam, captured by US troops in December, was entitled to all the rights under the Geneva Conventions.
But the spokesman did not give further details about Saddam Hussein's conditions of detention.
Earlier on Friday, a senior British official said Saddam - who is being held at an undisclosed location and interrogated by the CIA - was still refusing to co-operate with his captors.
But the former president's capture last month was yielding results "far greater than we expected", the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
The US-led coalition had used documents found with the ex-leader to mount operations against Saddam loyalists, the official said.
Arrests
The London-based official said the top US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, had briefed UK Prime Minister Tony Blair last week about the status of Saddam Hussein's interrogation.
"Saddam is not offering information of an operationally useful kind. They [the US authorities] are taking their time, trying to get him to talk so that he can feel comfortable that he can talk in captivity," Mr Bremer is said to have told Mr Blair.
Since he was captured on 13 December near his home town of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein is said to have refused to co-operate.
However, US military officials said the briefcase of documents found in his hiding hole had yielded important information.
General Richard Myers, head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said late last month that several hundred Iraqis had been arrested as a result of this intelligence.
| Rank | Location | Receipts | Donors/Avg | Freepers/Avg | Monthlies | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 61 | South Korea | 10.00 |
1 |
10.00 |
5 |
2.00 |
10.00 |
1 |
Thanks for donating to Free Republic!
Move your locale up the leaderboard!
Quick thinking. I do believe you're right.
Good thing, too, or else we would have to bring out....the COMFY PILLOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This has since changed, thanks to a little ingenuity...
I doubt it. All we would have to do is first return him to Iraqi custody.
By international treaty, the captor has certain 'obligations' toward the POW's in their custody. I'm no expert on this, but I don't recall any ex-Nazi's (or Japanese war criminals) being turned over to their respective gov'ts for trial -- even after the occupations ended. Rudolph Hess died in Spandau prison. All the others were held until there sentences were satisfied, or they died. Given the lack of counter-examples, I have to think that there must be some 'legal' reason for it.
As far as legal status goes, the fuller version of the BBC article linked above helpfully points out a few things. First things first, granting him POW status allows him to be tried for war crimes (I don't know what legal mechanisms can be used for his trial). Beyond that, we now need to keep him healthy, threat-free, and private until we either release him (which must be not much later than the end of all hostilities) or we try him.
Tell that one to Manuel Noriega!
It still seems that if the Iraqis are the ones to try Saddam, they won't be trying him for War Crimes. It'll be a matter of internal politics. So if we turn him over and say a bit later information comes in that he had Cdr. Scott Speicher murdered -- what then? Seems to me that it's an "either or situation" unless we can somehow 'reserve the right' to try him for War Crimes after the Iraqi's are through...
One thing is for sure: I don't want to see an "international tribunal" if the price for that cooperation is that we surrender the possibility of a death penalty.
There is simply not enough precedent for me to even hazard a semi-educated wild guess of whether we or the Iraqis would give up any rights to try Hussein as a war criminal if we turn him over to the Iraqis. I do know there's no way that we'd send him to The Hague (IMHO, they're as irrelevant and useless as the UN or a French aircraft carrier).
WASHINGTON — Lawyers at the Department of Defense have determined that Saddam Hussein (search) is an "enemy prisoner of war," senior Pentagon officials told Fox News Friday.
The lawyers apparently made the decision late last month, but Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (search) and reporters were only informed of their decision on Friday.
Senior officials and Rumsfeld have been saying since the days following Saddam's capture that he was being treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention (search), which governs treatment of captured military personnel by enemy powers.
Under the convention, prisoners of war are to be treated humanely — torture and coercion are strictly prohibited. They are also to be granted visits by members of the International Red Cross (search).
A spokesman for the ICRC in Geneva, Ian Piper, said Saturday a visit with the former Iraqi leader had been requested but has yet to occur. Some human rights groups have complained that other top former Iraqi officials in U.S. custody have not been given access to Red Cross representatives.
Powell said, "We are certainly treating everybody in our custody in accordance with basic rights and expectations of international agreements that we have."
Some human rights groups have complained that other top former Iraqi officials in U.S. custody haven't been given access to Red Cross representatives.
Senior Pentagon officials were quick to point out that, "should new information" come to light, Hussein's status could be reviewed and possibly changed.
A senior British official said Friday Saddam had not given useful information to his interrogators. The senior official, who briefed journalists on condition of anonymity, said U.S. authorities were taking their time questioning Saddam in the hope that he might eventually open up.
The general counsel office in the Pentagon — the Defense Department's top civilian lawyers — arrived at their decision that Saddam is a prisoner of war because of his status as former commander in chief of Iraq's military, spokesman Maj. Michael Shavers said Friday.
Some Iraqis in Baghdad were disappointed by the decision to grant Saddam prisoner of war status, fearing it was a move to deny Iraqi courts the chance to try him for crimes against the Iraqi people.
"The are considering him a POW in order to have a legal excuse to keep him with them away from the hands of Iraqis," taxi driver Imad Abbas said. "I don't think they will hand him for Iraqis for investigation lest he should reveal previous contacts with them."
WASHINGTON, Jan. 10, 2004 – The United States now considers former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to be a prisoner of war under the Geneva Conventions, a senior U.S. official said today in Baghdad.
However, Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Dan Senor told reporters that Hussein's POW status may change, depending on any evidence that may be uncovered pertaining to his alleged crimes against humanity.
Hussein "is now technically an enemy prisoner of war, but that status, his ultimate designation, is neither affected nor determined by that (POW) designation," Senor explained, noting "until further information comes forward, that is his status."
The former dictator had disappeared after the April 9, 2003, fall of his Baath Party-controlled government and remained at large until U.S. forces captured him Dec. 13.
Hussein has been accused of being responsible for the deaths of up to 300,000 Iraqis during his 24-year rule, including using chemical weapons against those who opposed him.
"A thorough investigation" of Hussein's alleged crimes will be conducted, Senor said, noting the Iraqi people "will have a substantial leadership role" in the process to bring the former dictator to justice.
The vast majority of Iraqis today identify Hussein's outlawed Baath Party with "torture chambers, rape rooms, mass graves, chemical attacks," Senor pointed out.
The U.S. official said it's important "for the Iraqi people to know that Saddam Hussein and his evil regime and the Baath Party are gone and they are not coming back."
As a symbol of post-Saddam Iraq, Senor pointed to the Jan. 15 issuance of new Iraqi postal stamps, which unlike most former regime stamps destroyed after the war, are Saddam-Hussein-image-free.
Scrubbing Saddam and his Baathist legacy from Iraqi public life is necessary, Senor asserted. He added that although free speech is part and parcel of a new, democratic Iraq, any use of "the messages and the images and the symbols of the Baath Party" would not be tolerated.
So does this mean Gitmo or no Gitmo ??Either way, like Blackie sez:
Hang him high !
Thanks ! That's what I figured when I heard that. No Gitmo ! ...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
