America must live up to its own concepts of justice

America must live up to its own concepts of justice

Jan. 24, 2001

'Smatter Of Fact
Katharhynn Heidelberg

How should one treat a suspected terrorist? Although legal scholars will spar about this for years to come, it should be obvious to the layperson that suspects should be treated, well, as suspects.

That doesn’t mean they should be accorded the status of royalty while being held on suspicion of terrorism. However, it also means they are innocent until solid evidence proves them guilty, and should be treated accordingly.

This is the premise behind recent legal actions undertaken on behalf of detainees at Camp X-Ray, Guantanamo Bay. A group of civil-rights advocates had its petition heard by U.S. District Court Judge A. Howard Matz on Tuesday morning. The petition "requests that U.S. authorities produce the prisoners in a U.S. court, explain the reasons for their detention and accord them due-process guarantees..."

This is surely within the bonds of reason. We might not be dealing with reasonable human beings; nonetheless, they are human beings and we diminish ourselves by treating them as anything less.

The Bush administration argues that some of the detainees are part of Al Qaida, and that Al Qaida is not part of a legally constituted foreign government. For that reason, they are not political prisoners. Critics contend that this enables the White House to neatly sidestep the provisions of the Geneva Convention as well as our own Constitution.

The Geneva Convention, Article 4, defines prisoners of war as "members of the armed forces of a party to the conflict, as well as members of militias or volunteer corps forming part of such armed forces; members of other militias and members of other volunteer corps, including those of or-ganized resis-tance movements be-longing to a party to the conflict and operating in or outside their own territory..."

This leaves much room for interpretation, especially as the convention also stipulates conditions, including that members of resistance movements conduct "operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war." It is a safe bet that Al Qaida, no matter how it is defined, has not done so.

Though the Geneva Convention may be manipulated to justify Camp X-Ray, will the U.S. Constitution — and the very beliefs we as a nation hold dear — give Bush a pass?

Critics further allege that detainees are kept in "cages," and were drugged, gagged and blindfolded — actions that themselves smack loudly of terrorism.

Military officials, however, say that the present holding cells, which do look like cages, are a stopgap measure and that the prison will eventually be constructed according to federal code. They argue that restraints were necessary to transport the detainees safely. And Britain’s Foreign Ministry concluded some (British) media depictions of the camp were "lurid...false." Three British subjects held there had "no complaints about their treatment."

Camp X-Ray may not, in fact, be the modern incarnation of the Inquisition. Of course, we’ve no reliable way of actually knowing that, as U.S. military officials refuse to even say whether the prisoners are being interrogated. The detainees have not been allowed lawyers, nor as of this writing, had the government defined the charges against them.

Still, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld insists, "They are being treated better than they treated anybody else." The sentiment is understandable. But, the sentiment rests in part on the belief that Americans are superior to others. It’s not unreasonable, then, that we act like it, even if it costs money, even if it takes time and even if honorable behavior might not be reciprocated.

Remember, we as a nation espouse "justice for all" — and like it or not, suspected terrorists are part of that "all." Of course we must seek justice. But we must do it cleanly, in accordance with our laws, or the belief in our superiority becomes a lie.