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Captured Taliban Classified "Unlawful Combatants"?

Francine I

06:49 / 27.01.02

http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/01/26/ret.powell.detainees/index.html

...(Powell disagrees).

Apparently, this classification would exempt captured Taliban and Al-qu'aida fighters the right to protection under the Geneva convention. Ugly stuff.

Shortfatdyke

08:24 / 27.01.02

i don't think there's much i can add to this that hasn't already been said. but 'good' (well, necessary) to be updated on this.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

14:40 / 27.01.02

Well...they are going by some parts of the Geneva Convention. The parts that suit them and keep reporters or other observers from seeing how the prisoners are being kept.

And am I the only one who finds it odd that they said the prisoners are being fed bagels as proof they are being treated humanely? It's not the food that is distressing...it's the fact that they are in open air cages with a wooden plank over them, were drugged while being shipped and had their beards shaved off (which are a part of their religion).

I would think that if they were from an "approved by the People In Charge religion", there wouldn't have been such petty spitefullness.

Tempus

16:15 / 27.01.02

On the other hand, I see in the "Cuba Detainee Gallery" that they did post a sign showing the direction of Mecca. Which shows some awareness of the tenets of Islam. And maybe the bagels are part of a cultural diversity initiative. This could all be very touchy-feely , a great big sensitivity-training program, for all we know. All right, so probably not. But still...

The Monkey

09:35 / 28.01.02

The beards are traditional in a lot of the Middle East and points Muslim, but I don't think they're precisely a tenet of Islam...anyone know the Qu'ran or Hadith well enough to give a final verdict?

The Monkey

09:46 / 28.01.02

Point of history:

The last time the "unlawful combatants" thing was ever played by a government was when the Russians and Italians switched sides in WWII. The Germans didn't recognize the policy changeover in either country--the SS set up a puppet government that never even entered Italy after the Italians strung up Benito from the lamppost. Similarly, they set up Russian "resistance government" [under Gen Vlasov] that continued to support the Germans.

Thus all Italian and Soviet soldiers captured by the Wehrmacht could be disposed of as-you-please, and were, horribly. Italians were just executed...the Russians were sent to concentration/forced-labor camps.

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