FindLaw.com: How Bush's Secret Gulag Violates International & US Laws

[BurtWorm]

Jennifer van Bergen, author of The Twilight of Democracy and writer for FindLaw, says Bush's sudden revelation of the CIA's secret prisons could get him and his cronies into a legal mess they are desperate to avoid. But, of course, this will depend on who has the will to prosecute these criminals for their crimes.

Here's a piece of a longer article, from the section on the Geneva Conventions:

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/commentary/20051107_bergen.html

International Law: How It May Apply to the Secret CIA Gulag

Common Article 3 (CA3) of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which has been described as "'a convention within a convention' to provide a general formula covering respect for intrinsic human values that would always be in force, without regard to the characterization the parties to a conflict might give it," protects any detainee under any circumstances. The denial of its protections is therefore a grave breach of Geneva and a war crime under the United States' War Crimes Act of 1996.

CA3 prohibits taking hostages, and it prohibits outrages upon personal dignity, including humiliating and degrading treatment. It also prohibits the passing of sentences and carrying out of executions without a previous judgment by a regularly constituted court affording all judicial guarantees.

Additionally, transfer of any person who is not a prisoner of war out of occupied territory is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions, as well as a war crime. Deportation is also a crime against humanity under the Nuremberg Charter.

Enforced disappearances are also barred by international law, as are arbitrary detentions. According to Article 7 of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1992, "no circumstances whatsoever" may justify enforced disappearances.

A U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared that U.S. detentions without status determinations constitute arbitrary detentions in violation of the Third Geneva Convention. The Parliamentary Assembly of the European Council resolved in 2003 that the detentions in Guantanamo, Afghanistan, and elsewhere were unlawful.

[Solly Mack]

1. She's right. Thanks for posting this!!!!

And I'll continue to push my rock and scream from the rooftops

Bush IS a war criminal..nothing hyperbole about it.

[grizmaster]

2. I can't count how many times bush has violated the American War Crimes Act

and under the terms of this very clear law, bush could be punished by death for any single one of his crimes.


http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00002441----000-.html

TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 118 > § 2441

§ 2441. War crimes

(a) Offense.— Whoever, whether inside or outside the United States, commits a war crime, in any of the circumstances described in subsection (b), shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for life or any term of years, or both, and if death results to the victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of death.
(b) Circumstances.— The circumstances referred to in subsection (a) are that the person committing such war crime or the victim of such war crime is a member of the Armed Forces of the United States or a national of the United States (as defined in section 101 of the Immigration and Nationality Act).
(c) Definition.— As used in this section the term “war crime” means any conduct—
(1) defined as a grave breach in any of the international conventions signed at Geneva 12 August 1949, or any protocol to such convention to which the United States is a party;
(2) prohibited by Article 23, 25, 27, or 28 of the Annex to the Hague Convention IV, Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, signed 18 October 1907;
(3) which constitutes a violation of common Article 3 of the international conventions signed at Geneva, 12 August 1949, or any protocol to such convention to which the United States is a party and which deals with non-international armed conflict; or
(4) of a person who, in relation to an armed conflict and contrary to the provisions of the Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-Traps and Other Devices as amended at Geneva on 3 May 1996 (Protocol II as amended on 3 May 1996), when the United States is a party to such Protocol, willfully kills or causes serious injury to civilians.

[BurtWorm]

3. kick

[indepat]

4. Amerikans must not care how many freakin' US and international laws are

broken, for they see W keeping us safe from all harm and all enemies, both foreign and domestic: I shan't invoke God to help us from what the Amerikan people have created and wrought upon themselves.

[dogday]

5. There is no denying the truth, and it hurts

Makes America look very bad and it is sad...

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. And you can't ride a horse in a saloon in Phoenix.

Who cares about these quaint laws? This is the New American Century, and we can do whatever we want because, well, just because. Right?