Legal status of prisoners.

["Ken Hanly" <khanly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Are there any lawyers on Pen-L who know anything about the term "unlawful
combatants"?
If they were taken prisoners in the war against terrorism, how is it they
are not prisoners of war? I guess it is because as someone put it: Grammar
is the first casualty of war and you really cannot have a war against an
abstract noun such as "terrorism". THe Bush spin doctors make words up to
mean whatever suits them it seems.
    Surely civil rights experts should be crying out against what the US is
doing. The Red Cross is going to be allowed to visit but on US terms of
course. What of family of these detainees, will they ever be informed about
the detainees? It seems that the US is now in
the disappeared business whisking people off to deal with as they please for
the most part.

Cheers, Ken Hanly

Sunday January 13, 12:55 AM

Prisoners at US naval base in Cuba face legal no man's land



The prisoners transferred from Afghanistan to a US naval base in Cuba are in
legal limbo facing unknown charges, and Washington has not yet set up the
military courts expected to try them, experts say.

The United States has qualified the prisoners as "unlawful combatants", who
do not enjoy rights under the Geneva Convention, but agreed to grant the
International Committee of the Red Cross access to the detainees.

"They will be handled not as prisoners of war -- because they're not -- but
as unlawful combatants," US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Friday.

"As I understand it, technically, unlawful combatants do not have any rights
under the Geneva Convention."

He noted, however, that "we do plan to, for the most part, treat them in a
manner that is reasonably consistent with the Geneva Convention ... and that
is exactly what we have been doing."

The Pentagon has said the inmates will receive appropriate medical care and
will have the right to practice their religion.

But they will not have the right to an attorney.

The United States has remained mum on the identities and activities of the
prisoners, who are believed to be members of either Osama bin Laden's
al-Qaeda network or Afghanistan's former ruling Taliban militia.

Washington launched a military campaign in Afghanistan when the Taliban
refused to hand over bin Laden, the suspected mastermind of the September 11
attacks on US targets that left more than 3,000 dead.

The Guantanamo inmates face continued interrogations and indefinite
detention at the base, as the United States decides whether to hold military
trials or dispose of them in some other way.

Rumsfeld, however, has indicated that the prisoners may face long periods in
detention, telling reporters Thursday that "you don't hurry through this."

US General Tommy Franks, commander of the US campaign in Afghanistan, told
CNN that US forces hoped to gain intelligence about the structure of the
al-Qaeda network and training of operatives, in a bid to thwart future
attacks.

Guantanamo offers the administration of US President George W. Bush several
advantages, including top-flight security due to its isolated location, as
well as proximity to investigators and federal agents in the United States.

The US naval base is about 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from Miami on the
southeast side of Cuba.

The base, ceded by Cuba in 1903 and leased to the United States in
perpetuity, also provides US authorities with foreign soil on which to
detain and perhaps eventually try the suspects.