Experts: Geneva policy won't halt US interrogations

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July 12, 2006

Geneva policy won't halt US interrogations

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060712/pl_nm/security_guantanamo_dc

The U.S. military order to apply basic provisions of the Geneva Conventions to terrorism detainees at Guantanamo Bay does not mean they will get the Swiss francs, parcels from home or full protections afforded to recognized prisoners of war, experts said on Wednesday.

Nor will it prevent interrogation of suspected al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners -- so long as the questioning is conducted without violence and without humiliating or degrading treatment -- the legal and human rights experts said.

"Interrogations are allowed but they're not allowed in the way they've been conducted at Guantanamo," said Bill Goodman, legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents about 200 prisoners at the U.S. navy base in Cuba.

But neither the Supreme Court decision nor the Pentagon order recognizes the 450 Guantanamo detainees as prisoners of war . . .

report: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060712/pl_nm/security_guantanamo_dc