[R. Scott]

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has at last recognized the Geneva Conventions. Observing, correctly, that Iraq’s televised display of captured American soldiers violated the laws of war, Rumsfeld said that the conventions spell out the rules governing international armed conflict.
The United States is right to insist that Iraq honor the Geneva Conventions. But its position is weakened by failure to practice what it preaches in holding 641 prisoners without charges at the U.S. military facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

I read the article. Nowhere did it say that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has decided that the captures Iraqis are POWs or have the right to be treated as POWs. He stated that the convention should be obeyed - and so far we have followed the rules - the rules as published, not the rules as interpreted by media talking heads.

[spunkets]

That's right he said the GCs should be obeyed.

Here's a copy of a US govm't doc that specifies the prisoners are to be treated as POWs.

See the Taguba report.

"4. (U) EPWs and Civilian Internees should receive the full protections of the Geneva Conventions, unless the denial of these protections is due to specifically articulated military necessity (e.g., no visitation to preclude the direction of insurgency operations). (ANNEXES 19 and 24) "