Tuesday, January 05, 2010

There is no more 'actionable intelligence' to be gained from inmates at Guantanamo Bay. The prison needs to be closed. It has become irrelevant.



And I will remind, that IF these men are to be considered 'enemy combatants' they are then POWs. POWs have rights under the Geneva Conventions and are required to be returned to their country of origin.

NOW.

If the people of the USA want to call them international criminals and have them tried for the crimes they committed I strongly suggest these men be housed in USA prisons and tried in a court of law.

General Protection Of Prisoners Of War (click title to entry - thank you)

  • Article 12. Prisoners of war may only be transferred by the Detaining Power to a Power which is a party to the Convention and after the Detaining Power has satisfied itself of the willingness and ability of such transferee Power to apply the Convention.

  • Article 84. In no circumstances whatever shall a prisoner of war be tried by a court of any kind which does not offer the essential guarantees of independence and impartiality.
  • Article 99. No prisoner of war may be convicted without having had an opportunity to present his defence and the assistance of a qualified advocate or counsel.
  • Article 101. If the death penalty is pronounced on a prisoner of war, the sentence shall not be executed before the expiration of a period of at least six months.

  • Article 102. A prisoner of war can be validly sentenced only if the sentence has been pronounced by the same courts according to the same procedure as in the case of members of the armed forces of the Detaining Power.

  • Article 103. Judicial investigations relating to a prisoner of war shall be conducted as rapidly as circumstances permit and so that his trial shall take place as soon as possible.

  • Article 106. Every prisoner of war shall have, in the same manner as the members of the armed forces of the Detaining Power, the right of appeal or petition from any sentence pronounced upon him.

    - AP




    • Terror suspect raised no suspicion in Amsterdam (click here)
    January 05, 2010 16:26 EST

    THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- Investigators have been studying more than 200 hours of security video from the Amsterdam airport, to learn more about what the suspect in the Christmas Day bombing attempt was doing while he was there.

    And they say they've found no evidence that the Nigerian man contacted any accomplices while in Amsterdam. They also say he had the explosives on him when he arrived from Nigeria on a connecting flight.

    Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane near Detroit by injecting chemicals into a package of explosives concealed in his underwear.

    Dutch investigators say he underwent a security interview in Amsterdam, and did nothing unusual in his three-hour stopover there.

    Investigators have seized the airline seat Abdulmutallab occupied from Nigeria to Amsterdam and sent it for forensic tests to check for traces of explosives.
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