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Some analysts are claiming that this abandonment (dare I say it, 'cutting and running') from the term, "enemy combatant" has practical consequences; others say it's basically window dressing from a president who will outwardly make a cosmetic change to damn the Bush administration only to more or less continue the same policies. I don't claim to know who is more correct. But I am gravely concerned about the direction in which we seem to be headed. And I have reason to believe that Obama's decision to change his terminology will lead to deeper, more fundamental consequences, as a Wall Street...

A former CIA officer tells Fox News its ridiculous that the Bush administration didn't execute numerous prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, regardless of whether they have had a trial, when it had the chance.

Abuse of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay has worsened sharply since President Barack Obama took office as prison guards "get their kicks in" before the camp is closed, according to a lawyer who represents detainees. Abuses began to pick up in December after Obama was elected, human rights lawyer Ahmed Ghappour told Reuters. He cited beatings, the dislocation of limbs, spraying of pepper spray into closed cells, applying pepper spray to toilet paper and over-forcefeeding detainees who are on hunger strike. The Pentagon said on Monday that it had received renewed reports of prisoner abuse during a recent review of conditions...

It never ceases to amaze me how our own home-grown enemies within constantly harp on the sins of the United States in regards to the Geneva Conventions. I would be willing to wager that most of them don’t even know that there are four, one more than three and one less than five, Geneva Conventions. The most recent is “GENEVA CONVENTION (IV) RELATIVE TO THE PROTECTION OF CIVILIAN PERSONS IN WAR (GENEVA CONVENTION IV)”. What amazes me further is the griping of the basic American Leftinistra when they grovel and whine about “when will the experts remember the Geneva Conventions?”...

It's from our own military which will probably discredit it with the loons on the left but a report requested by President Obama about conditions at Guantanamo prison shows that they meet the requirements set down by the Geneva convention - just as President Bush requested: Defense attorneys for the detainees have complained bitterly about the isolation of some prisoners. They allege that over several years, it has led to mental problems for some detainees. The lawyers also have criticized the force-feeding of prisoners on hunger strike. About 40 prisoners are now on hunger strike, according to Pentagon officials. Walsh...

Friday, February 20, 2009 Posted By:Catherine MoyPermalinkObama’s Government Report: Guantanamo is Humane and Abides by Geneva Conventions President Obama in one of his first actions in office ordered the closure of the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay. He also ordered an in-depth study of the prison camps to decipher whether the terrorists and alleged terrorists at Gitmo are properly treated and that U.S. troops are abiding by the Geneva Conventions. The report, part of which was leaked today, shows that Gitmo “complies with the humanitarian requirements of the Geneva conventions” and that the prisoners are treated with dignity. A Pentagon...

(IsraelNN.com) Hamas - and not Israel - was the reason ambulances could not reach victims, a Gaza ambulance driver told the Sydney Morning Herald. He said that Hamas terrorists tried to hijack an entire fleet of Al-Quds ambulances during Operation Cast Lead. Foreign media quoted Hamas officials and Gaza Arabs several times during the war that Israel blocked ambulances from reaching dying victims, but Mohammed Shriteh, a 30-year-old driver for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, told the Australian newspaper Monday that the Israel Defense Forces actually worked with the Red Crescent. "We would co-ordinate with the Israelis before we pick...

Video evidence of Hamas using UN Ambulances as troop carriers when the Israelis shoot. Now we will see Israel having to blow up ambulances, but Hamas weaponized and militarized them! Expect the MSM to ignore this footage entirely, but come out criticizing Israel for blowing up an ambulance! Caught red-handed. Click on image to see video Go forward to 0:48 to see the armed terrorists being let into the ambulance.Save this video as I expect it to disappear from the web quickly and forever.

The Detention Facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba houses some very dangerous combatants, most of whom have declared a hostile intent toward the United States. Is it smart to bring the detainees here? And under what auspices?

President-Elect Obama’s choice for Attorney General, Eric Holder, had a 2002 interview with CNN’s Paula Zahn, (partial transcripts and stories have appeared on several sites recently including: National Review, Salon, Israpundit, and Democrats.com) where he cited a stance on terrorist detainees and their rights which were very different from not only Vice President-elect Joe Biden but also Obama himself (my emphasis throughout:)

The Democrats have bleated for years about the detention of illegal combatants at Guantanamo, while the Left and the "international community" have demanded that captured terrorists be treated as prisoners of war. We read in the November 22-23 Wall Street Journal (page A13) that Barack Obama's selected Attorney General, Eric Holder, agrees with us that terrorists are not uniformed combatants who are entitled to the protections of the Geneva Convention. Per an interview on CNN in January 2002, One of the things we clearly want to do with these prisoners is to have an ability to interrogate them and find...

A map of President Bush's motorcade to Camp David was found last week in the possession of a teenager accused of stockpiling weapons and bomb-making materials, according to prosecutors. With the possibility that the motorcade was a target, federal authorities have joined police in investigating Collin Matthew McKenzie-Gude, 18, who allegedly was storing the weapons and materials just outside Washington, D.C., at the Bethesda, Md., home where he lives with his parents. MyFOXDC.com reports that Assistant State's Attorney Peter Feeney disclosed the discovery of the map of Camp David during a court hearing on Tuesday in Rockville, Md. The map...

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian President Alvaro Uribe says one Red Cross symbol was used in a daring and successful hostage rescue mission that took place two weeks ago. What seems to be part of a red cross is seen on a bib worn by a man involved in the rescue in this official image. One of the rescuers was wearing the symbol on a bib, Uribe said Wednesday in a nationally televised announcement that was also carried on radio. He described the wearing of the symbol as a slip-up. Such a use of the Red Cross emblem could constitute...

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian military intelligence used the Red Cross emblem in a rescue operation in which leftist guerrillas were duped into handing over 15 hostages, according to unpublished photographs and video viewed by CNN. Photographs of the Colombian military intelligence-led team that spearheaded the rescue, shown to CNN by a confidential military source, show one man wearing a bib with the Red Cross symbol. The military source said the three photos were taken moments before the mission took off to persuade the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebels to release the hostages to a supposed international aid group...

The manner in which free societies lose their moral compass is always incremental. Step by step by step, certain core values are whittled away. There is rarely a moment at which a government stands up, and asks its people if they wish to abandon such "quaint" notions as the Geneva Conventions, the rule of law, humane interrogation or habeas corpus. These things are abandoned incrementally or secretly, slice by slice, euphemism by euphemism, the chronology always clearer in retrospect than at the time. And each incremental step is always portrayed as a small but essential temporary sacrifice for the sake...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush, under fire over the treatment of CIA detainees, on Friday ordered that agency interrogators comply with the Geneva Conventions against torture. Five years after he exempted al Qaeda and Taliban members from the Geneva provisions, Bush signed an executive order requiring the CIA to comply with prohibitions against "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" as set down in the conventions' Common Article 3. Human rights activists criticized Bush's action, saying it did not go far enough to eliminate dangerous interrogation techniques.

Procedures Exceed the Requirements of the U.S. Constitution, U.S. Law, and Customary International Law Human rights activists, liberal media outlets, and Bush Administration critics have derisively characterized the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as the "gulag of our times,"[1] a "legal black hole,"[2] and a "stain on our nation's character."[3] One need not dig too deeply into the facts, however, to discover that the detainees held at Guantanamo receive the most systematic and extensive procedural protections afforded to foreign enemy combatants in the history of armed conflict, including unprecedented access to legal representation and U.S. courts. In...

In response to the news blurb about the Marine who put two rounds ("double tap") in a wounded insurgent's head in Fallujah, here's a response from a Marine: "It's a safety issue, pure and simple. After assaulting through a target, we put a security round in everybody's head. Sorry al- Reuters, there's no paddy wagon rolling around Fallujah picking up "prisoners" and offering them a hot cup a Joe, falafel, and a blanket. There's no time to dick around on the target. You clear the space, dump the chumps, and move on. Are Corpsman expected to treat wounded terrorists? Negative....

Torture, Al-Qaeda StyleDrawings, tools seized from Iraq safe house in U.S. military raid MAY 24--In a recent raid on an al-Qaeda safe house in Iraq, U.S. military officials recovered an assortment of crude drawings depicting torture methods like "blowtorch to the skin" and "eye removal." Along with the images, which you'll find on the following pages, soldiers seized various torture implements, like meat cleavers, whips, and wire cutters. Photos of those items can be seen here. The images, which were just declassified by the Department of Defense, also include a picture of a ramshackle Baghdad safe house described as an...

Shame on the Liberals for their Afghan policy By PETER WORTHINGTON Regardless of what they say for public consumption, the federal Liberals really do not like the military, especially the soldiers. This is apparent in their efforts to mortify the Harper government over claims of torture and abuse of Taliban prisoners captured by the Canadians in Kandahar and turned over to the Afghans. There's even the suggestion that our soldiers could be nailed for war crimes if abuses are committed against these prisoners by Afghans -- a concern echoed by Liberal allies in the private sector. The ludicrous alternative is...

The FReeper Canteen looks at The Geneva Convention   International Humanitarian Law   Until the middle of the 19th century all of the treaties concerning war victims' protection were circumstantial and binding only for the signing parties. These agreements were purely military-designed, based on strictly binding mutual obligations; and they were in force only during specific armed conflict.The 1864 Geneva Convention laid the foundations for the contemporary humanitarian law. It was in a whole characterized by: standing written rules of universal scope to protect the victims of conflicts;its multilateral nature, open to all States; the obligation to extend care...

How we can fight Tehran David Frum, National Post Published: Saturday, March 31, 2007 The Iranian seizure of 15 British naval personnel is an outrage -- and an opportunity. Iran invaded Iraqi territorial waters, attacked British naval personnel enforcing resolutions of the UN Security Council and committed an act of piracy and kidnapping. Iran then displayed its captives on national television and compelled them to read coerced political statements. It forced the captured female sailor to wear the Islamic hijab, a violation of her Geneva Convention right to practice her own religion. These violent and lawless actions have shocked...

Iran TV shows female navy captive Faye Turney said her captors had been 'friendly' and 'nice' Iranian state television has broadcast an interview with captured British female sailor Faye Turney and footage of the 14 servicemen seized with her.Leading Seaman Turney, 26, said they had been seized in the Gulf because "obviously we trespassed" in Iranian waters - something the UK disputes. She said her captors had been friendly and the 15 personnel were unharmed. The circumstances of the filming are not known. The Foreign Office said the footage was "completely unacceptable". 'Hospitable' Earlier Iran said it would release...

If it’s true that all Americans want proper national defense measures while enforcing and adhering to humane treatment of enemy captives, then we must begin with knowing what the Geneva Convention says, knowing to whom it applies (and doesn’t apply), being honest in the assessment of events, and applying the same rules of engagement expected of ourselves, to enemy forces. The Boston Globe writes ''Ex-General at Abu Ghraib Says Rumsfeld OK'd Abuse. That is a sensational headline to be sure, and the average reader would assume that this column is referring to the photos we’ve all seen of US soldiers...

To my American Friends, The Judge that ruled that the US is bound by the Geneva Convention is wrong, and should be removed from the Bench for such an outrageous misinterpretation. Read the Geneva Convention here: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/91.htm For the US to be bound by the Convention, a number of circumstances must be present, including: (A Party is a Country that signed up as a party to the Geneva Convention) "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...

What could be the first public appearance of the new leader of al-Qaida in Iraq has been posted on the Internet, showing him executing a Turkish hostage. Abu Ayyoub al-Masri succeeded Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was slain in a US airstrike June Seventh. The new leader is also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer. The video shows three men in masks standing behind a blindfolded hostage. The militant in the middle, identified as al-Masri, reads a statement criticizing companies and people that cooperate with the US military. Then he shoots the hostage three times in the head.

by Mark Finkelstein September 22, 2006 - 07:08 The bio of Los Angeles Times columnist Rosa Brooks couldn't be much more impressive in terms of conventional credentials: Harvard, Oxford, Yale. Adviser to State Department. Kennedy School Fellow. But despite having her ticket prestigiously punched time and again, her column of today reveals that nowhere has she learned much in the way of nuance or common sense. Her opposition to President Bush's efforts to clarify interrogation rules so as to allow some more forceful technqiues is absolute and implacable, utterly failing to acknowledge the realities of terrorism on a scale unimaginable...

President Bush's stalled anti-terrorism agenda edged forward Tuesday, with a rebellious House member rewriting her bill on wiretaps more to his liking and maverick Senate Republicans reopening talks over how to handle detainees. Rep. Heather Wilson R-N.M., offered to substitute her original bill on giving legal status to Bush's warrantless surveillance program with a bill that would grant a key administration request: allow wiretapping on Americans in the event of an "imminent" terrorist attack. In exchange, the administration would be required to share with Congress more details of the nature of the threat, presumably with the House and Senate Intelligence...

The Senate is stalling another Bush Administration proposal to effectively fight the war on terror. After the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this year that the President does not have inherent authority to try captured terrorists using military tribunals, President Bush asked Congress to grant him that authority in law. The Senate is balking at the President’s proposal, though, claiming that it runs afoul of a portion of the Geneva Conventions known as Common Article 3. But Heritage national security expert James Carafano notes that the administration’s proposal as it exists now would “satisfy[y] U.S. obligations under the Conventions.” In fact,...

by Mark Finkelstein September 19, 2006 - 07:46 In the course of the last few weeks Keith Olbermann's 'Special Comments' have become a Countdown staple in which the host plays to his Daily Kos demographic with vitriolic condemnations of all things Bush. I thought Olbermann had reached the nec plus ultra of nastiness with his suggestion a couple weeks ago that the Bush administration represented "a new type of fascism." I might have been wrong. MRC's Brad Wilmouth has comprehensively documented Keith Olbermann's 'Special Comment' of last night. In the course of those comments, Olbermann chose to invoke, of all...

When you enter a boxing ring, you agree to abide by the rules of boxing. But when you are attacked from behind in a dark alley, you would be a fool to abide by the Marquis of Queensbury rules. If you do, you can end up being a dead fool.Even with a nuclear Iran looming on the horizon and the prospect that its nuclear weapons will end up in the hands of international terrorists that it has been sponsoring for years, many in the media and in the government that is supposed to protect us have been preoccupied with whether...

Earlier this year, I made a friendly wager with a Republican legislative aid whereby I picked U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to be the GOP's presidential nominee in November 2008. Though the Viet Nam veteran was responsible for some highly dubious legislation in the past, including the infamous McCain-Feingold Campaign Reform Bill, I still believed the Party's base could have given him their vote, in order to keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House. However, McCain--who obviously loves to see his name in print--cannot seem to stand prosperity within his own political Party. Earlier this year he was one...

Dear Senator McCain: I just returned to town and learned about the debate taking place in Congress to redefine Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention. I do not support such a step and believe it would be inconsistent with the McCain amendment on torture which I supported last year. I have read the powerful and eloquent letter sent to you by one [stet] my distinguished predecessors as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Jack Vessey. I fully endorse in tone and tint his powerful argument. The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight...

Convention (III) relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949. Preamble The undersigned Plenipotentiaries of the Governments represented at the Diplomatic Conference held at Geneva from April 21 to August 12, 1949, for the purpose of revising the Convention concluded at Geneva on July 27, 1929, relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, have agreed as follows: Part I. General Provisions Art 1. The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect and to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances. Art 2. In addition to the provisions which shall be implemented in peace time,...

President Bush wasted no time yesterday responding to the Senate Armed Services Committee's passage of legislation that could damage the ability of intelligence agencies to obtain information from terrorist detainees. On Thursday, four Republicans [on] the Senate Armed Services Committee -- John Warner and John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Susan Collins -- joined committee Democrats in passing flawed legislation governing detainee treatment that fails to respond to Bush's critical request. The lawmakers must clarify what interrogators can and cannot do when interrogating suspected jihadists. ... ...it would be difficult to imagine a more irresponsible decision... American forces captured Abu Zubaydah...

by Mark Finkelstein September 15, 2006 - 08:01 Like a baseball player - rescued from the nether reaches of the minor leagues and brought up to the Yankees - who cuts his hair, shaves the shaggy mustache and minds his grammar in his first TV interview, Keith Olbermann was on his better behavior in a 'Today' appearance this morning. In a temporary reprieve from the ratings purgatory that is his own Countdown on MSNBC, Olbermann was awarded an interview on Today for purposes of plumping his new book, 'The Worst Person in the World.' Lauer gave Olbermann respectful treatment, inviting...

TEL AVIV, Israel — In the least friendly fire imaginable, Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon encountered Hezbollah wearing Israel Defense Force uniforms, the Jewish state's leading investigative news program reported. During a battle on the evening of August 6 and early hours of August 7, in the town of Hule, an IDF unit found two Hezbollah dressed in Israeli fatigues and helmets in a civilian home. The battlefield commander was forced to order his men to remove the white hats they wear on their helmets to distinguish his men from the enemy. An embedded reporter, Itai Engel, from the weekly...

An obscure law approved by a Republican-controlled Congress a decade ago has made the Bush administration nervous that officials and troops involved in handling detainee matters might be accused of committing war crimes, and prosecuted at some point in U.S. courts. Senior officials have responded by drafting legislation that would grant U.S. personnel involved in the terrorism fight new protections against prosecution for past violations of the War Crimes Act of 1996. That law criminalizes violations of the Geneva Conventions governing conduct in war and threatens the death penalty if U.S.-held detainees die in custody from abusive treatment. In light...

The latest grand Islamist atrocity was directed against the huge city of Mumbai, Tuesday. At least seven big explosions ripped through rush-hour commuter trains, along a string of stations on the principal north-south rail artery -- temporarily disabling the city's principal economic lifeline. It was a reprise of the Islamist attacks on Madrid's rail system, 28 months ago.As we must surely realize from recent arrests around Toronto, New York, Miami, London, Beirut, and elsewhere, the menace is hardly receding. For each Islamist cell police break up, they are dimly aware of several others. In Mumbai, the police anti-terrorist squad...

The Geneva Conventions of 1949 govern the treatment of lawful combatants and civilians during wartime. But now a new Pentagon memorandum concludes that Common Article 3 of the Conventions also governs the treatment of unlawful combatants: pirates, drug mafias and especially terrorists. So, five years after 9/11, the U.S. is about to give to people who ram commercial jets into buildings many of the same legal privileges and immunities as the average GI. How did we get to this Osama in Genevaland world? Credit belongs to last week's Hamdan Supreme Court decision, and to Pentagon officials who have overinterpreted the...

(Australian) FOREIGN Minister Alexander Downer says the United States has always treated terror suspect David Hicks and his fellow Guantanamo Bay detainees in accordance with the Geneva Convention. The Bush administration said overnight that all detainees in US military custody in Cuba and elsewhere would be treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention. The new policy appears to reverse Washington's earlier insistence that Guantanamo detainees, including Mr Hicks, were not prisoners of war and therefore not subject to Geneva protections. It reflects the recent five to three US Supreme Court decision blocking military commissions set up by US President George...

The Supreme Court’s decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld is a national-security disaster. Forget about its undermining of military commissions. Forget even about its rewriting of the Geneva Conventions into something the United States would never have ratified. Hamdan is a disaster because it sounds the death knell for the National Security Agency’s Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP), the early-warning system developed by the Bush administration to ward off a reprise of 9/11 by penetrating the enemy’s wartime communications. Almost as depressing as the vertiginous 180-page decision itself has been the don’t-worry-be-happy post-mortem, which holds: “Hey, it’s not so bad — Congress...

There is much less than meets the eye to the Pentagon’s announcement today that enemy combatants at Gitmo will be accorded Geneva Convention protections. It is not an announcement (as it is being misconstrued in some places) that al Qaeda detainees are now considered honorable prisoners of war. What DoD is saying is that they get Common Article 3 protection, which is minimal: they are entitled to be treated humanely, which was already U.S. policy, and – consistent with what the Supreme Court has ruled – they may not be subjected to military commissions as currently designed. No one really...

In Big Shift, U.S. to Follow Geneva Treaty for Detainees By NEIL A. LEWIS and JOHN O’NEIL WASHINGTON, July 11 — In a sweeping change of policy, the Pentagon has decided that it will treat all detainees in compliance with the minimum standards spelled out in the Geneva conventions, a senior defense official said today. The new policy comes on the heels of a Supreme Court ruling last month invalidating a system of military tribunals the Pentagon had created to try suspected terrorists, and just before Congress takes up the question of a replacement system in a Senate Judiciary Committee...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration, called to account by Congress in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling blocking military tribunals, said Tuesday all detainees at Guantanamo Bay and in U.S. military custody everywhere are entitled to protections under the Geneva Conventions. White House spokesman Tony Snow said the policy, outlined in a new Defense Department memo, reflects the recent 5-3 Supreme Court decision blocking military tribunals set up by President Bush. That decision struck down the tribunals because they did not obey international law and had not been authorized by Congress. The policy, described in a memo by...

Preamble The undersigned Plenipotentiaries of the Governments represented at the Diplomatic Conference held at Geneva from April 21 to August 12, 1949, for the purpose of revising the Convention concluded at Geneva on July 27, 1929, relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, have agreed as follows: Part I. General Provisions Art 1. The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect and to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances. Art 2. In addition to the provisions which shall be implemented in peace time, the present Convention shall apply to all cases of declared war or of any...

In a 5-3 decision on June 29th reversing the Court of Appeals (D.C. Circuit) in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the Supreme Court upheld the Geneva Conventions of 1949 as enforceable U.S. law. A plurality of the justices also relied on international law to strengthen another key finding in the case. They restored the critical partnership that international law has with federal law. The Supreme Court justices demonstrated how fundamental tenets of international law amplify American values and are deeply embedded in U.S. law. No other decision of the Supreme Court in recent years has so forthrightly reaffirmed American obligations under international...

WASHINGTON -- Congress is moving quickly to begin writing legislation to allow the creation of military tribunals, reacting to a Supreme Court decision this week that repudiated the Bush administration's use of such tribunals to try Guantanamo detainees without authorization from Congress. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican, said he would introduce legislation on the tribunals after the July Fourth recess, which extends through next week. Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, has said he wants to work with the White House on crafting a bill. And Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, introduced...

Rosa Brooks: Did Bush commit war crimes? Supreme Court's decision in Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld could expose officials to prosecution. June 30, 2006 THE SUPREME Court on Thursday dealt the Bush administration a stinging rebuke, declaring in Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld that military commissions for trying terrorist suspects violate both U.S. military law and the Geneva Convention. But the real blockbuster in the Hamdan decision is the court's holding that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention applies to the conflict with Al Qaeda — a holding that makes high-ranking Bush administration officials potentially subject to prosecution under the federal War Crimes...

Can anyone tell me what the punishments are for breaking the Geneva conventions are. If someone breaks the rules what the heck is going to happen. Are the guilty persons going to be invaded? They are already at war!!!! Where is the link for the signatories as well if anyone has them.