Word: geneva
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Gulf War II has already seen some textbook Geneva infractions, if reports from the front are true: Iraqi fighters who reportedly quartered in a hospital were breaking Annex I of the first convention, which prohibits military activity in medical facilities. Those Iraqis who have allegedly waved white cloths and then started shooting at unwitting G.I.s are committing what the Geneva agreements quaintly call "perfidy," as are any who have tried disguising themselves as civilians. Iraqi officials accuse the U.S. of war crimes too--namely dropping bombs on civilians (a Geneva infringement only if intentional). It's hard to take such...
...treatment of Taliban fighters and suspected terrorists at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. When the detainees first began to arrive there in January 2002, Rumsfeld said the U.S. was planning--"for the most part"--to treat them in a manner "reasonably consistent" with the Geneva Conventions. Human-rights groups howled that he was waffling on the long-standing U.S. commitment to the global agreement. The Bush Administration argued that the conventions weren't appropriate for many detainees because they were essentially criminals--that is, terrorists without countries or uniforms who do not "carry arms openly and respect...
...here?--before a TV audience. If it turns out that other Americans in their unit were executed (the broadcasts also showed a group of dead Americans, one of whom had a visible gunshot wound to the head), a much more serious crime--a "grave breach" of Geneva, in its stiff parlance--will have been committed...
Last week many Americans were suddenly citing the third convention; the NASDAQ said al-Jazeera's "alleged violation" of Geneva was a reason it was booting the network from its broadcast facility. Technically speaking, news outlets aren't signatories to the conventions, so they aren't bound by them. But al-Jazeera gets some Qatari government funding, and Iraqi TV is state...
Should the U.S. commander have stopped the report to be in compliance with Geneva? Perhaps. "When you are dealing with these embedded media, you have to wonder how much the U.S. government must try to control them," says Silliman, the former Air Force attorney. He says this responsibility is something Pentagon commanders take seriously; there are scores of military lawyers deployed with the troops to help answer such legal questions. It may seem strange to think of lawyers running around the desert with copies of a 54-year-old Swiss treaty, but as Rumsfeld knows, it is that very document...