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February
5, 2002
David
Vest
The
Enron Creature
Dita Sari
Why
I Rejected the
Reebok Human Rights Award
February
4, 2002
Eric Miller/Beth
Daley
Five
Weapons Systems
That Bilk the Taxpayers
Kenneth
Roth
Dear
Condoleezza,
You've Misstated the
Geneva Convention
Robert
Jensen
The
Occupation Must End
Shahid
Alam
How
Different Are
Islamic Societies?
David
Vest
Everybody
Says I Loathe You
John Chuckman
American
Politics of Grief
February
3, 2002
Zoltan
Grossman
War
and New Military Bases
February
2, 2002
Francis
Schor
Carlucci's
Strange Career
February
1, 2002
Dr. Susan
Block
The
Great Ashcroft Cover Up
Jeremy
Voas
Why
We're Suing Ashcroft
David
Vest
10
Things I Know About Him
January
31, 2002
Rahul
Mahajan
The
State of the Union:
A New Cold War
Dave Marsh
Miles
Copeland, War
and the Future of Music
John Pilger
The
Colder War
Alexander
Cockburn
American
Journal:
Killer Dog, Weird Couple
Dr. Susan
Block
Blowback
and Daniel Pearl
January
30, 2002
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Linda
Lay, Hill and Knowlton and the Tears of a Clown
Jack McCarthy
Free
Noelle Bush!
Michael
Ratner
Memo
to Bush: Adhere to
the Geneva Convention
Jay Moore
Proud
to be an American?
Susan
Block
The
Great Pretzel Swallower
and Guantanamo Porn
January
29, 2002
Gary Leupp
Why
This War Was, and Remains, Utterly Wrong
Alexander
Cockburn
The
Birds of Kandahar
Patrick
Cockburn
Afghan
Opium Trade
Back in Business
January
28, 2002
Larry
Chin
Brosnahan
for the Defense
Mokhiber/Weissman
Tyranny
of the Bottom Line
George
E. Curry
Civil
Rights Nominee Called Affirmative Action "Racist"
Sen. Russ
Feingold
Campaign
Finance Reform?
Think Enron
John Chuckman
Liberal?
Media?
January
27, 2002
Mokhiber
and Weissman
Enron's
Drip, Drip, Drip
Tom Turnipseed
MLK
Jr.'s Dream Perverted
January
26, 2002
Norman
Madarsz
Adieu,
Bourdieu
January
25, 2002
National
Lawyers Guild
Know
Your Rights
Alexander
Cockburn
You
Call This Terrorism?
CounterPunch
Wire
Cal
Energy Crisis Hoax:
It Wasn't A Shortage,
It Was a Shakedown
Tariq
Ali
Kashmir,
Klinghoffer,
the Kurds and Chomsky
Nadine
Strossen
Protecting
MLK Jr.'s Legacy:
Justice and Liberty After 9/11
January
24, 2002
Robert
Fisk
Turkey
Targets Chomsky
Dean Baker
Lying
on Top:
Ken Lay One of Many
David
Vest
Idiot
Wind
January
23, 2002
Terry
Waite
Guantanamo
Prisoners:
Justice or Revenge?
Molly
Secours
The
Case of Abu-Ali:
Racism and the Death Penalty
Robert
Jensen
Speak
Out, Get Slimed
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
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8-Page Special Issue
War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
Search
CounterPunch
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
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February 5,
2002
What to do with Our 'Detainees'?
By Tom Malinowski
Thirty years ago, American prisoners of war were
being brutalized in North Vietnam, and an outraged American
government sought to shame their captors into respecting the
Geneva Conventions. The treatment of Americans never came close
to being humane. But, as Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) has said
of his POW ordeal: "I'm certain we would have been a lot
worse off if there had not been the Geneva Conventions around."
That's an important story to remember
as Americans debate whether the Geneva Conventions should be
upheld in the treatment of prisoners from Afghanistan. It reminds
us that the issue is not about whether we sympathize with accused
terrorists who probably don't want our sympathy anyway. It
is about protecting a set of rules that protect all people,
including American servicemen and women taken captive in war.
It is about preserving America's right to complain when Americans
are mistreated overseas.
To his credit, Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld acknowledged last week that the conventions do apply
to all of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, reversing earlier
statements to the contrary.
What do the conventions tell us about
how these prisoners should be treated? The al-Qaeda detainees
probably are not entitled to formal POW status because they
did not fight for a regular army, wear insignia that identified
them as soldiers, or respect the rules of war. If so, they could
be tried for war crimes or terrorist acts in the President's
proposed military commissions, as long as the trials respect
due process.
But the Taliban detainees probably should
be called POWs. They fought for the regular armed forces of
Afghanistan. Rumsfeld has suggested that this rule may not apply
to the Taliban because they weren't internationally recognized
as the government of Afghanistan. But the Geneva Conventions
don't make that distinction. Nor has the United States: In
the Korean War, for example, neither the United States nor the
United Nations recognized the communist government of China,
but U.S. forces treated Chinese prisoners as POWs.
If any of the detainees are POWs, the
Geneva Conventions oblige them to give only their name, rank
and serial number. But that doesn't mean the military can't
interrogate them about other things, including possible future
attacks. And the United States can still prosecute them for
war crimes in a military court martial.
Who determines whether they are POWs
or "unlawful combatants," as the Defense Department
has called them? Rumsfeld cannot make that call himself. When
there is any doubt about a prisoner's status, the conventions
require that they be considered POWs until a "competent
tribunal" decides otherwise, and so do U.S. military regulations.
The Defense Department should respect its own rules by convening
such tribunals without delay.
Whatever the prisoners' legal status,
the Geneva Conventions entitle them to be treated humanely.
In many respects, the military has taken this responsibility
very seriously, while taking understandable steps to protect
itself from dangerous prisoners. The main problem has been the
confinement of prisoners in metal cages open to the elements
- conditions Americans would surely condemn if American prisoners
were subjected to them overseas.
For all the debate on this issue, the
Defense Department has essentially acknowledged the conditions
are inadequate by pointing out that the shelters are temporary,
and promising to build permanent facilities. That effort needs
to be accelerated.
There is an easy way for the administration
to settle the debate. The Red Cross is now inspecting the facilities
in Guantanamo and will be making its recommendations privately
to the Defense Department. Rumsfeld should release those recommendations,
and he should pledge now to follow them.
If the administration does that, it will
clear up much of the controversy and confusion. It will be showing
that nations can bring terrorists to justice without sinking
to their level. And it will ensure that the next time American
servicemen and women are imprisoned overseas, the Geneva Conventions
will still be there to protect them.
Tom Malinowski is
Washington advocacy director of Human
Rights Watch
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