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January
30, 2002
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
January
22, 2002
Brendan
Cooney
Moby-Dick
and the Hunt
for Osama bin Laden
Rick Giombetti
Progressive
Pols for Enron?
Judith
Resnik
Invading
the Courts?
Kevin
Alexander Gray
The
Crisis in Black Leadership
January
21, 2002
Marjorie
Cohn
Will
Walker's Words
Be Used Against Him?
Ahmad
Faruqui
MLK
Jr. and the Palestinians
January
19. 2002
Jordan
Green
Enron
Stole Our Future
January
18, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
The
Enron Model
Walt Brasch
Enron
at the White House
CounterPunch
Wire
Human
Rights Group Says Guantanamo Prisoners Must
Be Treated as POWs
January
17, 2002
Gideon
Levy
Bulldozing
Rafah
Uri Avnery
That
Weapons Shipment
January
16, 2002
John Chuckman
The
Angel and the Pretzel
Lawrence
McGuire
Subverting
the
Geneva Convention
Kathy
Kelly
An
Open Letter to
Richard Perle on Iraq
January
15, 2002
George
Monbiot
Greenpeace,
Lord Melchett
and the Business of Betrayal
Jack McCarthy
Follow
the Pretzel
William
Blum
Atta
and the Times:
Follow the Changing Story
Edward
Said
Emerging
Alternatives
in Palestine
January
14, 2002
David
Vest
Open
Bag. Eat Pretzels.
Patrick
Cockburn
Collapse
of Georgia
Ignored by the World
Mokhiber/Weissman
Enron's
Accountants:
When In Doubt, Shred It
January
13, 2002
C.G. Estabrook
Why
We Kill People
January
12, 2002
Cockburn/St.
Clair
Forbidden
Truths
January
11, 2002
Lee Balllinger/Dave
Marsh
Neil
Young's Duet with Ashcroft
January
10, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
Bush,
Enron, UNOCAL
and the Taliban
St. Clair/Cockburn
Greenpeace
to Greenwash?
Hans von
Sponek
Iraq:
Is There an Alternative
to Military Action?
Jim Lobe
Israeli
Human Rights Group Assails Army
Marina Mayakova
Russia's
Top Military Astrologer Predicts More Attacks from OBL
January
9, 2002
David
Vest
The
Super-Burqa
and the Big Tent
ND Jayaprakash
Winnable
Nuclear War?
Rafiq
Kathwari
Kashmir
Will Make Ground Zero Look Like a Bonfire
January
8, 2002
Prudence
Crowther
Sting
Like a B-52
Nelson
Valdés
Al-Qaeda
at Guantanamo Bay
John Chuckman
Dark
Tales from the
Ministry of Truth
Richard
Corn-Revere
Do
We Fear Freedom?
Joan Hoff
The
Nixon You Haven't Heard
January
7, 2002
Lawrence
McGuire
Confusing
Economic Tales About Argentina
Wael Masri
They
Are Taking
Our Rights Away
Philip
Farruggio
Better
Medicine
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
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
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Published Oct. 15, 2001
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 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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This Explosive
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Reviews of Gore:
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January
30, 2002
Follow the Geneva Convention
By Michael Ratner
Secretary of State Colin Powell has added his
voice to the chorus: It is in the best interests of the United
States, he says, to initially treat combatants captured in Afghanistan
as prisoners of war. This is the view of other realists in
the Pentagon and administration, some US allies, and the vast
majority of international law and human rights groups.
But the question goes far beyond the
treatment of individual detainees. Rather, it sets the stage
for how, in a violent world, the rules of war are established
for everyone. For almost 100 years, the Geneva and Hague Conventions
have provided a framework that protects combatants. The United
States has always argued for a broad reading of these conventions
regarding POWs, both to set an example and to ensure fair treatment
of its own soldiers when captured.
Regarding the detainees at the American
naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, the US is currently violating
its own Army regulations as well as the Geneva Convention, namely
in the way the prisoners are housed (in open-air cages with
roofs).
US Army rules reflect the convention
and require that all persons taken into custody by US forces
during a conflict be treated as prisoners of war, "until
some other status is determined by a competent tribunal."
This means that all combatants - Taliban, Al Qaeda, and others
- captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan must be treated
at first as POWs until their status can be decided by a competent
tribunal.
These fighters won't necessarily receive
POW status. Some people have argued that Al Qaeda fighters may
not qualify as POWs if they did not wear distinctive marks identifying
them or obey the laws of war; others have argued similarly about
the Taliban. But the facts are not established, which is why
US Army regulations require a "competent tribunal"
to judge each individual case fairly.
We must also remember that POW status
hardly protects captured fighters from prosecution: POWs can
be charged with war crimes.
They can also be interrogated, cajoled,
and questioned - they just cannot be coerced or tortured. The
Geneva Convention does allow POWs to limit their responses to
name, rank, and serial number. Yet over the years many POWs,
questioned under the framework of the convention, have provided
much more information.
Finally, treating prisoners initially
as POWs does not mean the United States abandons security concerns.
Under the Geneva Convention, prisoners of war may not be abused,
starved, left out in the elements, or with their wounds untreated.
But they are subject to measures that keep them securely captive,
under lock and key.
The reasons for complying with Army regulations
and the Geneva Convention are clear: The US has an immediate
and long-term interest in upholding international conventions
that establish universal rules of war and regulate the treatment
of POWS.
Even as Washington politicians bluster,
our own soldiers live with the threat of capture. They, like
all other combatants, deserve the protection of the Geneva Convention.
The United States also has an interest
in not alienating its battlefield allies by high-handed, unilateral
decisionmaking and selective compliance with the law. If the
rules of war can be abrogated at any moment on the whim of the
secretary of Defense - even over the objections of the secretary
of State - our ability to form solid and lasting alliances will
be gravely undercut.
Michael Ratner
is an international human rights lawyer and vice-president of
the Center
for Constitutional Rights. He has brought numerous suits
against the illegal use of military force by the United States
Government and specializes in opposing government spying. Mr.
Ratner teaches International Human Rights Litigation at Columbia
Law School, and is the author of The
Pinochet Papers, International
Human Rights Litigation in US Courts, and Che
Guevara and the FBI.
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