AFSCME 3357-HOF'S BLOG

Rumsfeld a War Criminal?

The New York Times reports that Donald Rumsfeld issued an order to hide at least one detainee in Iraq. Ordinarily, the military is required to keep a registry of soldiers held as prisoners of war. The International Red Cross uses this registry to check to make sure that the prisoners are treated humanely. Once again, the Bush Administration has a "unique" view of international law, claiming that the Geneva Conventions allow a delay in identification of prisoners to "avoid disclosing their whereabouts to an enemy."

The prisoner in question is allegedly a "senior Iraqi terrorist". And though is knowledge is supposed to be so important that his whereabouts must be hidden, he allegedly wasn't interrogated since right after his capture in November 2003. The NYT article explains that nobody in authority knew where he was.

Here's a brief quote from the NYT article






PRISON ABUSE
Rumsfeld Issued an Order to Hide Detainee in Iraq
By ERIC SCHMITT and THOM SHANKER

Published: June 17, 2004

WASHINGTON, June 16 - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, acting at the request of George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, ordered military officials in Iraq last November to hold a man suspected of being a senior Iraqi terrorist at a high-level detention center there but not list him on the prison's rolls, senior Pentagon and intelligence officials said Wednesday.

This prisoner and other "ghost detainees" were hidden largely to prevent the International Committee of the Red Cross from monitoring their treatment, and to avoid disclosing their location to an enemy, officials said.

Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, the Army officer who in February investigated abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison, criticized the practice of allowing ghost detainees there and at other detention centers as "deceptive, contrary to Army doctrine, and in violation of international law."






The New York Times > Washington > Prison Abuse: Rumsfeld Issued an Order to Hide Detainee in Iraq