Posted on 01/14/2002 12:46:56 AM PST by Bad~Rodeo
War in Afghanistan More captured fighters flown to Cuba amid US indifference to concern about their status
The US pressed ahead yesterday with its controversial policy of flying al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners from Afghanistan to a US naval compound at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Another 30 detainees boarded a transport plane bound for the island last night.
Guarded by American troops with attack dogs, the men, shackled and wearing taped-over ski goggles, shuffled in the darkness into a C-17 plane at Kandahar airport. They wore surgical masks over their mouths and noses, because some had tested positive for tuberculosis, a military spokesman said.
They will join 20 detainees, including a Briton and an Australian, who arrived in Cuba on Friday. Hundreds are eventually to be flown there from the Kandahar holding area.
A marine spokesman, Lieutenant James Jarvis, said questioning of the detained suspects had gathered "lots of information ... some of it actionable".
The second shipment of detainees came as concern mounted in Britain over the legal status and treatment of the prisoners.
They are being described as "unlawful combatants" by Washington, and as such are outside the remit of international law governing fighters captured in conflicts .
Because they are being held outside US sovereign territory, they are also denied the rights to a jury trial in independent courts afforded to "ordinary" criminals by the constitution. Washington has indicated that they will be tried by military tribunals.
The Foreign Office said yesterday that the detainees' legal status was a matter for the US. A spokeswoman said consular staff would travel to Guantanamo Bay to establish the identity of the British prisoner so relatives could be informed.
Geoffrey Robertson QC, a human rights law expert, said the US was breaking the Geneva convention.
"The key thing is that as PoWs they are protected from coercion and torture by the need to only provide name, rank and number. At the moment they have no such protection."
· The Australian Broadcasting Corporation last night broadcast extracts from a video allegedly showing al-Qaida militants rehearsing an attack on world leaders at a golf tournament and on a motorcade in what appeared to be Washington.
The grainy video, in which it said Arab, Pakistani and African fighters spoke English, was found by the Northern Alliance at a training camp near Kabul after the Taliban fled.
Controversial? Maybe it is in the UK it certainly hasn't been here.
They already are: http://www.amnesty.org
I already fired off an email to 'em. admin-us@aiusa.org
Their complete list of email addresses can be viewed at http://web.amnesty.org/web/contacts.nsf/Email?OpenPage
Don't forget clean clothes, sanitary conditions and health care.
Conditions are probably far better than in Afghanistan.
Cry me a river.
Seems I read that according to the Geneva Convention, non-uniformed folks captured in a battle zone are classified as "hostile non-combatants" or something like that. I guess that'd mean 99% of the soldiers we were fighting in Vietnam weren't really soldiers. Sheesh.
It is in every nations' interest- indeed, in people's interest, NOT to equate terrorists who cloak themselves as harmless civilians among their intended victims and who reprisent groups which have hidden themselves in shadows ... with uniformed soldiers, serving honorably and openly as armed combatants for nations or groups that have openly laid out their laws?
Such a title should be reserved for genuine hostages or soldiers which strayed into the DMZ, not terrorist sewage.
They need to be hooded and restrained like this.
Perhaps this is why war was not declared in the first place, Bush administration is referring to them as "detainees" and as such their rights become limited. No country, no conventions, easier trials.
I have also read that the military tribunals are becoming more like trials, the death penalty requires unanimous vote of all three judges and the perp is "presumed innocent" until evidence overcomes beyond a reasonable doubt.
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