Legal Arguments for Avoiding the Jurisdiction of the Geneva Conventions - SourceWatch

Legal Arguments for Avoiding the Jurisdiction of the Geneva Conventions - SourceWatch

Legal arguments for avoiding the jurisdiction of the Geneva Conventions commenced prior to November 13, 2001, when President George W. Bush issued the President's Military Order of November 13, 2001, Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens in the War Against Terrorism in response to the events of September 11, 2001.

Also see Jennifer Elsea, "Terrorism and the Law of War: Trying Terrorists as War Criminals before Military Commissions," (http://www.fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/7951.pdf) Congressional Record Service, updated December 11, 2001;

"This report supercedes 'Trying Terrorists as War Criminals', RS21056 (Oct. 29, 2001), a summary treatment of the military tribunal issue prepared prior to the issuance of President Bush's Order of November 13, 2001

"Iraq's a nation. The United States is a nation. The Geneva Conventions applied. They have applied every single day from the outset." -- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. May 20, 2004,
citation (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5024068/

The Geneva Conventions do not apply to terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda." -- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. May 13, 2004,

Iraq (http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2004&m=May&x=20040514164950sjhtrop0.3854029&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html

The President's Order is subsequently referenced by John C. Yoo and James C. Ho in their August 1, 2003, "International Law and the War on Terrorism." (http://www.law.berkeley.edu/cenpro/ils/papers/yoonyucombatants.pdf

Yoo and Ho state that their paper will "identify and discuss two legal questions raised by the war on terrorism that have generated significant controversy among academics and public commentators.
"First, did the September 11, 2001 attacks initiate a war, or 'international armed conflict' to use the vocabulary of modern public international law?
"Second, what legal rules govern the status and treatment of members of the al Qaeda terrorist network and the Taliban militia that harbored and supported them in Afghanistan?"

Yoo and Ho inform:

"In short, the United States government has concluded that the attacks of September 11 have placed the United States in a state of armed conflict, to which the laws of war apply. It has also determined that members of the al Qaeda terrorist network and the Taliban militia are illegal combatants under the laws of war, and so cannot claim the legal protections and benefits that accrue to legal belligerents, such as prisoner of war status under the Third Geneva Convention of 1949." BU*SH*IT

In no section of the President's Military Order is reference made either directly or indirectly to the Geneva Conventions.