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To: John_11_25
the [Gitmo prisoners] should get the same treatment as the US Taliban prisoner and the so called dirty bomb maker. A Court of Law. If they admit and are helpful, they get an easier sentence. If evidence is provided, that is good and they are proved guilty, they should be sentenced to whatever the crime permits. However, to keep people locked up, for a maybe, this is against everything the US and her allies stand for....being in Afghanistan fighting for the Taliban was never a crime,

You are sadly misinformed. These people were captured pursuant to a combat operation and are being held as prisoners of war, not criminals. As members of Al Qaeda, they belong to an organization which is still conducting armed attacks against the USA. No different than any other prisoners of war, they may legitimately be held for the duration of hostilities or until the capturing power decides to release them, normally under some type of parole.

The tens of thousands of Afghans who were captured but were simple members of the Taliban Army were released after the Taliban were defeated and a new Afghan government in place. The guys in Guantanamo are Al Qaeda--big difference. Releasing them would be like releasing Nazi SS prisoners while we were still at war with Germany.

19 posted on 07/17/2003 6:25:54 PM PDT by mark502inf
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To: mark502inf
not POW's...illegal combatants. POW's wear the uniform of their Nation. IC's dress in dirty nightshirts and hide behind women and children.
28 posted on 07/18/2003 4:39:53 AM PDT by steve8714
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To: mark502inf
If they are Prisoners of War, they are entitled to rites as in the geneva convention.

Article 110

The following shall be repatriated direct:

1. Incurably wounded and sick whose mental or physical fitness seems to have been gravely diminished.

3. Wounded and sick who have recovered, but whose mental or physical fitness seems to have been gravely and permanently diminished.

The conditions which prisoners of war accommodated in a neutral country must fulfil in order to permit their repatriation shall be fixed, as shall likewise their status, by agreement between the Powers concerned. In general, prisoners of war who have been accommodated in a neutral country, and who belong to the following categories, should be repatriated:

this end the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:

(a) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;

(b) Taking of hostages;

(c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment;

(d) The passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.

Article 4

A. Prisoners of war, in the sense of the present Convention, are persons belonging to one of the following categories, who have fallen into the power of the enemy:

1. Members of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict as well as members of militias or volunteer corps forming part of such armed forces.

2. Members of other militias and members of other volunteer corps, including those of organized resistance movements, belonging to a Party to the conflict and operating in or outside their own territory, even if this territory is occupied, provided that such militias or volunteer corps, including such organized resistance movements, fulfil the following conditions:

(a) That of being commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates;

(b) That of having a fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance;

(c) That of carrying arms openly;

(d) That of conducting their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war.

1. Those whose state of health has deteriorated so as to fulfil the conditions laid down for direct repatriation;

2. Those whose mental or physical powers remain, even after treatment, considerably impaired.

33 posted on 07/18/2003 12:16:39 PM PDT by John_11_25
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