Saddam a POW, Red Cross says

[DuctapeFatwa]

The international Red Cross said today it considers Saddam Hussein a prisoner of war and wants U.S. authorities to allow it to visit the ousted Iraqi leader to check the conditions in which he is being held.
The United States has not formally declared Saddam a prisoner of war, though Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Saddam would be given POW rights under the Geneva Conventions.

Rumsfeld, however, added that Saddam's classification may change and he may lose POW status if it appears he had a role in the postwar insurgency in Iraq that has killed more than 200 Americans.

A Red Cross spokesman, Florian Westphal, would not comment directly on Rumsfeld's comments. But he said Saddam "was the commander in chief of the Iraqi army, which seems to indicate that he should at least be presumed a POW.''

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1071486175178&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968705899037

[Pale_Rider]

1. Wonder if Saddam has been given access to a lawyer?

On edit: see LBN posting on ex-attorney general Ramsey Clarke's offer.

[hlthe2b]

2. How on hell can we not consider him a POW?

of course this lying sack of shit administration has no honor and will just make up the rules (or rewrite them) as we go.

Saddam may be a despiccable dictator, but that's NOT the point. Go, Red Cross.

[mbperrin]

3. Rummy: "War? Prisoner? Things known and not."

Bush*:"He tried to kill my dad. So I had his sons and grandson killed. We're taking him out!"

Most belligerently disconnected from reality types I ever heard of.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

4. Either it's "Mission Accomplished" or

"Sorry, the war's NOT OVER yet!"-- Time for a decision, don't you think? This should be a fairly clear-cut thing.

Perhaps we could loan Bush a coin to flip?

[DDiamond]

5. War still going on

Rumsfeld is playing it safe. Of COURSE Saddam "had a role in the postwar insurgency in Iraq". Except it is NOT "post"-war. Did he ever surrender? Did they ever stop fighting? It's war! You can't declare the war is over when you have accomplished the easy part and the hard part is still ahead of you.

This administration has already once broken the Geneva convention by uttering the magic words "unlawful combatant" - not a recognized status under the Geneva convention. Even non-regular partisans have some status therein.

[leesa]

6. They've broken the Geneva convention so many times your head

will spin off. ALL of the internees at Gitmo are walkin', talkin' violations of the Geneva Convention. It's only "war" when Bush wants to silence critics, don't you know?

[jmcgowanjm]

7. The problems w/ Saddam/US legalities wll just keep coming

Like-
-will he be tried as a UScitizen(PrePatriotAct?)postPatriotAct
-where's the Attorney
-Civil/military court
-Under Iraqi Auspices?
-Int'l Criminal Court?

And Ashcroft thought Moussaui was trouble.

"We came to power on a CIA train" – Saddam was
back as head of the party's secret intelligence branch,
and, according to Darwish, was leading execution
squads of Iraqi National Guardsmen who were hunting
down and killing suspected communists included on
lists provided by ... the CIA.
http://www.antiwar.com/ips/lobe121603.html

[apsuman]

8. Only Rumsfeld didnt' say "postwar"

In the interview I saw, Rumsfeld said "... a role in the unsurgency since the end of major combat operations..."

Now, I don't see the difference, but unless he made a second (or third, etc.) statement, the reporter dropped the ball.