Human Rights Watch (4/7): Pentagon Detention Guidelines Entrench Illegalit

Press Release from Human Rights Watch
Dateline Washington Thursday April 7

US: Pentagon Detention Guidelines Entrench Illegality
Enemy Combatants Could be Held as "Ghost Detainees"

Proposed Pentagon guidelines will formalize the U.S. military's illegal policy of holding "enemy combatants" without protections under the Geneva Conventions, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

The new policies, set out in a 142-page final draft document prepared by the Joint Chiefs of Staff entitled "Joint Publication 3-63: Joint Doctrine for Detainee Operations," (Note: PDF -- JR) include a directive that would allow the military to hold enemy combatants as "ghost detainees," by denying access to them by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The guidelines also specify that humane treatment of all detainees can be limited by "military necessity," a position that is both contrary to international and domestic law and opens the door to mistreatment and even torture of detainees.

"Instead of correcting current violations of the Geneva Conventions, these guidelines would shred the conventions further," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "The policies set out in this document could even require personnel to commit war crimes."

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Still more global tyranny from the noeocons.