Question Details	Asked By	Asked On
Prisoner Abuse	excon	11/10/05
Hello experts: Without going back to read your previous responses, I would bet that some of you (and you know who you are), said that the abuses at Abu Grahib were the result of just a few rouge lower level soldiers. In light of the recent exposure of a chain of CIA prisons in Asia, and Cheney's attempt to exempt parts of the goverment from torturing, while Bush says that WE don't torture...... It is rather confusing, I know. I guess it is simpler just to deny the whole thing is happening and go out for a burger. excon
Clarification/Follow-up by Nocturne on 11/12/05 1:12 am: Tomder said, "what other bill of rights provisions do you want to endow terrorists with ?" As an example, David Hicks, the Austaralian, is to to become one of the first Guantanamo detainees to face military trial. There is no doubt he spent time in al-Qaeda or Taliban training camps. But did he, and others as charged by the Americans, conspire with Osama bin Laden to commit terrorism, aid enemy forces in Afghanistan and try to kill coalition soldiers? The use of a conspiracy charge, and that seems to be something that’s commonly used in these cases, is baffling, because there is no such charge in International Law. The the conspiracy charge levelled by the U.S., is odd in that there’s no such charge as that in US domestic law. I challenge you to identify one thing that’s been done by David Hicks that was aimed at the United States. And since there are no such issues they have to create this conspiracy, a global conspiracy, to give them the right to even charge these people with a crime. Certainly we don’t want more terrorist attacks and there are plenty of laws in place for people who plan to commit crimes around the world, that’s not the problem here. The problem is that the Bush administration doesn’t recognise that what they’re doing is making the world a far more dangerous place. When you behave as a hypocrite, as they have in Guantanamo Bay by pretending to stand up for the rule of law and then dissolving it, what you do is create hatred around the world. A firm adherence to human rights is by far the best counter-terrorism I think you will come across.
Answered By		Answered On
Nocturne		11/10/05
The fact that detainees in Guantanamo and other places are being held without charge, astounds me. The White House decided that neither Taliban nor al-Qaeda captives would be called prisoners of war or have a right to be protected under the Geneva Conventions. Instead, they'd be called "illegal combatants". "...We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness..." Kind of ironic isn't it.

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