[Tezcatlipoca]

Originally Posted by punky

You can be a terrorist and still part of a legitimate army. The Taliban became terrorists when they gave Old Bin Liner sanctuary in their country.

Then they should charge them & put them on trial. Not just keep them locked up indefinitely, without ever being charged with a crime, let alone convicted & sentenced.

And who is to say all the people there do actually deserve to be there? I'm sure that plenty of them probably are Taliban & terrorists, but there have been plenty of reports to suggest that some are there simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

With the Gulf War II, all three Husseins were terrorists because of the way they run their country (part of the Axis Of Evil), but the army was implicated because they did what they asked them to do. I know if they refused they would of gone into the plastic shredder feet first (Galloway ought to rememeber that), but as soon as they engaged the coalition, they became instruments of the terrorist regime, like the Taliban did.

True. I guess that they can be describe as "terrorists", in a way.

However, not all the prisoners at Abu Gharib prison are or were members of the Iraqi Army, or members of the current insurgency/resistance/terrorists (name depending on viewpoint).

Again, as with Guantanamo, some are simply people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, or were just rounded up "willy nilly" during US raids (e.g. random raid finds someone owns a rifle, & they get put in jail - even though in some areas it is pretty damn necessary to own a gun).

But I don't think the Geneva Convention would apply here, because like Damien said, they are always hooded, they aren't being paraded to be humiliated, etc. Even if they did, I don't suppose anything would happen. I mean they did it multiple times back in March-April 2003, even after being warned. But you can't expect anything to be done about it, it is enforced by the UN. Annan has never done anything to earn his $290,000 a year salary.

On the upside though bin Laden has threatened to kill Annan, and some (what looks like) 17 year old work experience boy gave a press interview saying: "We are taking the threat very seriously (once authenticated)", so, Annan might get replaced soon, maybe with someone who'd take his job seriously.

Oh and Tez: Good point about the "illegal combatants" phrase.

I see what you mean about the application of the Conventions. Although the photos seem to be meant to humiliate, the Conventions may not apply to their publication, due to the prisoners faces not being visible (so they are not fully subject to "public curiosity").

Although, of course, the Conventions still apply to the illegal abuse itself (I'm not saying you said they didn't - just pointing out that there are different ways in which they apply).

Annan & the UN...It is hard to enforce things if some countries just go around & do whatever they want to anyway, or have the power to veto anything they don't like.

I do believe that the UN needs reforming though.