In message , DRS
writes
"Neil Harrington" wrote in message


[...]

The Geneva Convention does not, as far as I know, offer any protection
whatever to combatants who are not part of any recognized military
force. If you think it does, show me where.

Combatants captured not in proper uniform are not POWs and have no
rights at all -- they can be and have been just executed on the spot.
That's been the rule for at least a few hundred years.

Every person has rights. Many of the detainees at Guananemo have been shown
to have not been involved in terrorist activities and were captured by
mistake.

However the experience of several years illegal detention and torture
turned most of them and their families into at least sympathisers of Al-
Qeada.

That is why civilised countries insist on the rule of law, where
no person may be detained without due process, something the Bush
administration fought every step of the way.

And why the US is seen as a rouge stage by most of the world.

It is not acceptable to merely
deem someone a terrorist or a criminal by fiat. It must be established by
evidence.

Afghanistan offered to give OBL to the US is the USA had any credible
evidence.... the USA could not produce any evidence and the Afghans did
not turn him over. SO the USA illegally invaded.

Now I think any reasonable person would admit that a little
waterboarding is kinder and more generous treatment than being
summarily executed.

There is no such thing as "a little waterboarding". It is torture and under
the terms of the international agreement signed by Ronald Reagan and
ratified by the US Senate America has no lawful option but to prosecute
those who engaged in it.

Agreed. The right wing in the USA sound just like the N.Koreans, Chinese
and the Israelis.

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\/\/\/\/\ Chris Hills Staffs England /\/\/\/\/
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