Gitmo Military Tribunals Illegal
The US Supreme Court ruled today that prisoners captured by the US military in its Global War On Terror (GWOT) and held Guantanamo Bay jail for trial before military commissions violates US law and the Geneva Conventions
The decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld [PDF file - Ed.] is widely seen as a defeat for US president George W. Bush, but it is not the clear-cut victory opponents of the GWOT were hoping for. For instance, detainees at Guantanamo Bay can still be held captive for the duration of the hostilities. They can still be interrogated pending trial. The most significant portion of the decision, however, is it held that the conduct of US military and civilian personnel tasked with processing these prisoners must strictly follow the provisions of the Geneva Conventions; in other words, the US high court said that its principles must be applied to non-uniformed, non-state combatants, such as terrorists, as well:
“Even more importantly for present purposes, the Court held that Common Article 3 of Geneva aplies [sic] as a matter of treaty obligation to the conflict against Al Qaeda. That is the HUGE part of today’s ruling. The commissions are the least of it. This basically resolves the debate about interrogation techniques, because Common Article 3 provides that detained persons “shall in all circumstances be treated humanely,” and that “[t]o this end,” certain specified acts “are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever”—including “cruel treatment and torture,” and “outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment.”"
More analysis at Hot Air and at The Belmont Club.
