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Gitmo and the Bogus 'Enemy Combatants' Trials Should Be Ceased Immediately

By Marjorie Cohn, AlterNet. Posted June 8, 2007.


The Military Commissions Act, which denies basic due process protections, including the right to habeas corpus, is a disgrace. But an even bigger disgrace is the concentration camp the United States maintains at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
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In 2002, Donald Rumsfeld famously called the detainees at Guantánamo "the worst of the worst." General Richard B. Myers, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned they were "very dangerous people who would gnaw hydraulic lines in the back of a C-17 to bring it down." These claims were designed to justify locking up hundreds of men and boys for years in small cages like animals.

George W. Bush lost no time establishing military commissions to try the very "worst of the worst" for war crimes. But four and a half years later, the Supreme Court decided in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld that those commissions violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Geneva Conventions. So Bush dusted them off, made a few changes, and rammed his new improved military commissions through the Republican Congress last fall.

Only three detainees have been brought before the new commissions. One would expect the people Bush & Co. singled out for war crimes prosecutions would be high-level al-Qaeda leaders. But they weren't. The first was David Hicks, who was evidently not so dangerous. The U.S. military made a deal that garnered Hicks a misdemeanor sentence and sent him back to Australia.

Salem Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni who used to be Osama bin Laden's chauffeur, was the second. Hamdan, whose case had been overturned by the Supreme Court, was finally brought before a military commission Monday for arraignment on charges of conspiracy and material support for terrorism.

The third defendant was Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen, who appeared for arraignment the same day as Hamdan. Khadr was 15 years old when he arrived at Guantánamo. He faced charges of conspiracy, murder, attempted murder, spying, and supporting terrorism.

On Monday, much to Bush's dismay, two different military judges dismissed both Hamdan's and Khadr's cases on procedural grounds.

The Military Commissions Act that Congress passed last year says the military commissions have jurisdiction to try offenses committed by alien unlawful enemy combatants. Unlawful enemy combatants are defined as (1) people who have engaged in hostilities or purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States or its allies; or (2) people who have been determined to be unlawful enemy combatants by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) or another competent tribunal. The Act says that a determination of unlawful enemy combatant status by a CSRT or another competent tribunal is dispositive.

But there are no "unlawful" enemy combatants at Guantánamo. There are only men who have been determined to be "enemy combatants" by the CSRTs. The Act declares that military commissions "shall not have jurisdiction over lawful enemy combatants." In its haste to launch post-Hamdan military commissions, Bush's legal eagles didn't notice this discrepancy. That is why the charges were dismissed.

The Bush administration may try to fix the procedural problem and retry Khadr and Hamdan. But regardless of whether Guantánamo detainees are lawful or unlawful enemy combatants, the Bush administration's treatment of them violates the Geneva Conventions. Lawful enemy combatants are protected against inhumane treatment by the Third Geneva Convention on prisoners of war. Unlawful enemy combatants are protected against inhumane treatment by Common Article Three.

Omar Khadr was captured in Afghanistan and brought to Guantánamo when he was 15 years old. In both places, he has been repeatedly tortured and subjected to inhumane treatment. At Bagram Air Base, Khadr was denied pain medication for his serious head and eye shrapnel wounds. At Guantánamo, his hands and feet were shackled together, he was bolted to the floor and left there for hours at a time. After he urinated on himself and on the floor, U.S. military guards mopped the floor with his skinny little body. Khadr was beaten in the head, dogs lunged at him, and he was threatened with rape and the removal of his body parts.


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See more stories tagged with: enemy combatants, geneva conventions, human rights, guantanamo

Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, president of the National Lawyers Guild, and the U.S. representative to the executive committee of the American Association of Jurists. Her new book, Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law, will be published in July.

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.When will this end?
Posted by: aurora2484 on Jun 8, 2007 12:50 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If his family were wiped out - by the two 500 lb bombs - then even if he is released tomorrow, to whom does he go "home"? Who will help him to try and recover a semblance of health?
When will it end?
When will the monsters be brought to justice?
Call them war criminals, call them what you like, -- they are not human as I understand the word.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: .When will this end? Posted by: TassieDevil
» RE: .When will this end? Posted by: LeftCoastProgressive
» RE: .When will this end? Posted by: aurora2484
» RE: .When will this end? Posted by: aurora2484
» RE: .When will this end? Posted by: Crazy H
» RE: .When will this end? Posted by: aurora2484
The REAL meaning of Gitmo.
Posted by: HughScott on Jun 8, 2007 5:54 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The existence of Gitmo tells the Muslim world Bin Laden is right -- that Americans are Satan's helpers. At the very least, we should be ashamed of ourselves.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» Keep up the good work! Posted by: Conservasaurus
» RE: Keep up the good work! Posted by: yellow
Repeal the act and close the prison
Posted by: Barbara Susan on Jun 8, 2007 6:22 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"The Act [MIlitrary Commissions Act]should be repealed and the Guantánamo prison should be shut down immediately."

Agreed. Please advise how to accomplish this.

Barbara Susan, US Citizen

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The method behind the madness
Posted by: willymack on Jun 8, 2007 8:47 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Is easy enough to see. The bushies are doing what they do best-keeping people's attention focused on "enemies" while they go about the business of robbing us blind and dismanteling our Constitution ("that goddam piece of paper"). Now it's kangeroo courts for poor saps, most likely guilty of nothing more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Only loathsome degenerates like the bushies would commit such a hideous crime with a smile on their faces, and only ignorant fools like Americans would continue to allow them to keep screwing us and the world, over and over again.

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Let's Get A Medal Struck
Posted by: LeftCoastProgressive on Jun 8, 2007 10:01 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I think all the guards who participate in this degenerate, criminal camp should be rewarded with special commendations. I think a medal depicting a soldier guard kicking a prisoner, or pissing on a prisoner should be struck and awarded to all those "brave" guards and the camp commandant. An especially large pair should be provided for Bush and Cheney along with 8x10 glossies of as many acts of camp bestiality that can be obtained.
I am disgusted and sick to be called an American!

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Americans, STOP digging your own graves before it is too late
Posted by: Carl Street on Jun 8, 2007 10:01 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The State, aka the Mystical Body of Satan, gladly burns friend and foe alike. THAT is why adherence to the law is so important.

In these days where law is sacrificed by the ignorant for expediency this is an important lesson. The LAW is the ONLY thing that protects us all from the awesome power of both the State and those with greater economic advantage.

The LAW provides the ONLY possible level playing field for those of us who lack political and economic power. When we circumvent the LAW we increase the risk to ourselves and our families.

STRICT adherence to the letter of the law, even when it appears to be not to our advantage is our ONLY protection. When we undermine the law by practicing political, economic, and or religious prejudice we are cutting our own throats.

Bush & Co. are ONLY running roughshod over us because many misguided people thought it was OK to dispense with the LAW due to an emergency. Actually, the LAW, like a life jacket, becomes MORE important in emergencies.

You do NOT need LAW to protect you and your family in peaceful times and with honest people in positions of power; you need the protection of LAW the most during times of strife and when tyrants and power hungry depots rule.

All of you who think/thought that it was OK to vilify those of the Muslim persuasion, Jewish persuasion, Mexican or Black ethnicity LEARN this lesson:

It is ONLY an accident of history that your particular skin color, religious, political or philosophical persuasion happens to be socially fashionable at the moment. ALL the unconstitutional rules, regulations, you support or supported to "punish" others you do not like to satisfy your own intellectual and emotional shortcomings WILL come back to haunt you and/or your families in the future.

As many a German who cheered on the Nazi persecution of the Jews, Gypsies, etc. learned to their sorrow; it was ONLY a matter of time before they TOO became socially unfashionable.

But by the time they learned that lesson, it was too late -- they too were in the boxcars and on their way to the death camps. Hopefully, Americans will prove to be smarter than the Germans; if not, they will have ONLY themselves to blame.

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It's not murder
Posted by: Crazy H on Jun 8, 2007 10:49 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
To shoot in self-defense. Iraqis and Afghanis who shot back at the soldiers invading their homes are not criminals in any sense of the word.

There is no such thing as an "enemy combatant" - legal or illegal, there are only soldiers and civilians. International treaties define legal methods of dealing with them.

Why do you suppose that Dumbya decided that the US was not subject to the International Criminal Court even before 9/11? Did he have something in mind...?

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What SHOULD be done instead?
Posted by: beaux510 on Jun 8, 2007 12:41 PM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I'm not a republican, nor democrat, neither left nor right as both seem blinded by their own rhetoric and devoid of the ability to understand the other's beliefs. I voted for both Gore and Kerry and for the record knew that entering Iraq would have devastating results, before the invasion.

That being said, after reading this article and the comments I'm a little stunned at the unrealistic expectations of the majority of the posters here.

First, the Geneva Convention was designed to give legal enemy combatants turned prisoners the guarantee of humane treatment by their captors. "Legal Enemy Combatant" is defined as a ranked, uniformed soldier of a state entity engaged in combat against other ranked, uniformed soldiers that fit the same criteria. It does not apply to members of non-state actors (Al Qaeda is a good example). In it's most simple form that's the crux of it. I'm not saying that it is 100% justifiable, but by the rules of engagement it's permissible.

Protect the poor farmers? How many farmers do you know that have hand grenades in their possession? And what would the proper response to said poor farmer's request to be put out of misery? This article makes it sound like the US soldiers were being cruel by not killing him. That makes no sense. He asked them to finish him off, in english, and they didn't, how cruel.

So, what are we allowed to do in the effort to protect our country? I'm not saying the rendition process is a good idea, it's not, but what SHOULD we do? Do we sit back and do nothing but play catcher while enemies who are growing ever more sophisticated, funded, trained and diverse plan the next large-scale attack? Just because our monkey-boy in charge was ill-equipped to deal with the situation he was faced with does not mean that the threat was invented by him. Yes, he's horrible, and he's got it wrong most of the time, but that's on him. Even though the threat has been dealt with poorly doesn't negate the fact that it exists. We should do everything possible to make sure that it doesn't happen again. If some mistakes are made, so be it. It's a process that needs to be refined.

Close Gitmo? Hell yes. But it has to be replaced with something else. We can't have our hands tied by everyone who just want things to be like they were back when we didn't have enemies who want to remove our nation (including everyone from the left who understands their "suffering") from the face of the earth. When exactly was that? I'm 40 and I can remember seeing the flag burned in the middle east when I was a wee child. The dream of "world peace" is merely that, a dream. This world has been at war forever.

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Statements regarding the Geneva Convention are WRONG!!
Posted by: Carl Street on Jun 8, 2007 2:06 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The Geneva Convention Does NOT require uniformed troops. In Fact, quite the contrary, in the event of a foreign invasion (such as the USA is doing in Iraq and Afghanistan) the Geneva convention SPECIFICALLY states that ad hoc militias and guerrilla units are covered by its provisions.

read it here: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/91.htm

German military officers and public officials were Jailed, Hanged, and SHOT for their treatment of ad hoc militias and guerrilla units during WWII On EXACTLY that point of law. German claims that partisans were "terrorists" and exempt from the Geneva Convention were brushed aside at the Neuremburg Trials and those violations were punished severely.

Right now, American Military personnel and American public officials are IN VIOLATION of the Geneva Convention.

You may not like; nor want to deal with; or cannot handel the TRUTH; but it is the TRUTH none the less. Please stop spreading lies and false statements.

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Mr. Khadr
Posted by: famouspipeliner on Jun 8, 2007 5:06 PM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Omar Khadr's father was a friend of Osama bin Laden and was an active member of al Queda. In fact, the Khadr family shared the same compound as the bin Laden family. Omar still has family in Canada and they have been interviewed on CBC, facts which the poster has chosen to keep from the readership.
Having said that, I am veritably speechless to find out the details of Omar Khadrs' treatment at Guantanamo. For the love of whatever Americans hold sacred...how can you allow this to go on? Jesus fucking Christ.

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