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Geneva Convention
John Wonder asked who knows the Geneva Convention. Randy Black
replies: "Relevant parts of the Geneva Convention are taught to US soldiers
almost from Day One of Basic Training. Such instruction, classes, exams and
briefings continue throughout one’s military career depending upon one’s
assignments. Obviously, if one is fixing computers for the Army in San Antonio,
changing bedpans at a military hospital in D.C., or designing lesson plans for
the Air Force in Colorado, with no chance of going overseas, ongoing training
in the many facets of the convention are less important. For ANY soldier to
say otherwise defies logic and the truth".
The Geneva Convention is an important document, long sections of which have
been read in Congress. However, non-compliance by rogue countries is a problem.
Randy Black says: "Saddam Hussein signed the Geneva Convention.
Castro stated yesterday that the prison abuse by US troops at the prison in
Iraq could NEVER have happened in Cuba.
Many legal experts agree that the Geneva Convention applies in Iraq but not
in Guantanamo Bay. "The Guantanamo Bay detains people detained in the war
on terrorism. The Geneva Conventions do not apply to the war on terrorism. There
is no nation state that has signed the Geneva Conventions with which we're fighting.
We're fighting a non-state organization with a collection of people from all
kinds of countries, and these people violate the laws of war at the very core
and use it to kill lots of civilians, as we saw on Sept. 11. The Geneva Conventions
do not contain a definition of torture or a definition of inhumane treatment.
And so countries have tried to interpret that by practice. It depends on the
context". This statement was by John Yoo, a professor at Boalt Hall Law
School at the University of California, Berkeley. From 2001 to 2003, he served
as a deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department. Seehttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/jan-june04/interrogation_05-13.html
Finally, the Geneva Conventions have been modified many, many times in the past hundred plus years. But although the US signed the Conventions modifications, US law requires that Congress ratify those changes. "Additional protocols have been issued including two in 1977 extending the 1949 articles to cover guerrilla combatants and to soldiers in wars of "self-determination." The United States signed the 1977 Protocols, but Congress refused to ratify them". Seehttp://hnn.us/articles/586.html. In other words, complain about Congress, not the Presidents who served since 1977".
RH: The simple fact is that Americans and foreigners are appalled by what happened
in Abu Graib prison in Baghdad. To counter the charges by Seymour Hersh that
Defense Secretary authorized the methods used, the White House issued a statement
saying that sections of the Geneva Convention were quaint. That simply added
fuel to the fire. Even Republican Senator Richard Lugar, chairman of the Foreign
Relations Committee, was appalled and refused to believe the statement had been
issued.
US soldiers are charged with having violated the Geneva convention by abusing
prisoners at the Abu Graib prison. Randy Black protests. "Making Iraqi
prisoners parade around naked is hazing, not abuse. That Iraqi routinely chopped
of the arms of prisoners, hung others, buried alive others". RH: Clearly
there is a difference. However, claims by the Bush administration that only
a few soldiers were involved is a half truth. That thousands of photographs
of abuses circulating among American soldiers in Iraq was proof of their widespread
appeal. Now evidence of this is coming out. Official stories have a gloss to
them. One Pentagon-backed program showed how American troops are equipped with
special goggles which enable them to single out a house from which shots are
being fired and then to target it with gunfire. Contrast this with the story
of the wedding party being celebrated close to the Syrian border. Following
the stupid Middle East custom, the celebrants fired shots in the air. US troops
shelled the party, killing forty. The troops claimed that they were under attack,
and they stick to that story. Perhaps the episode will discourage the shooting
of guns for fun, but, since this is the Middle East, underline "perhaps".
General Robert Gard writes: "I am amazed that someone could call the abuse
of Iraqi prisoners simply "hazing."
The Geneva Conventions prohibit "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular,
humiliating and degrading treatment." We claim to be abiding by the Geneva
Conventions in Iraq. Surely what was done fits the criteria above".
RH: Among the latest pictures released in one of US troops laughing at the corpse
of an Iraqi who apparently had been beaten to death.
Randy Black defends his use of the word "hazing" to describe the abuse
of Iraqi prisoners in Aby Ghraib prison: "I call it hazing since it is
what I saw in my college days, again and again. It was common in Basic Training
at Ft. Ord for trainees to undergo hazing, for that matter. Been there, been
subjected to it. No big deal then or now. I am not certain why the media is
making such a big deal of this prank that, in reality, involved very few soldiers
perhaps a dozen enlisted and a few officers, including one General who simply
did not supervise her troops. You don’t know if the guy was beaten to
death. Heck, he may have had a heart attack. Everyone calm down". RH: It
seems that the "hazing" involved a considerable number of soldiers.
The press said the "goy" had been beaten to death, but, even if he
did have a heart attack, it was no reason to gloat over him.
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