William Taft IV Quotes
A decision that the Geneva conventions do not apply to the conflict in Afghanistan in which our armed forces are engaged deprives our troops there of any claim to the protection of the conventions in the event they are captured
The Justice Department and the White House were arguing that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to terrorist groups. See {589865}.
William Taft IV, State Department Legal Adviser, Memorandum to White House Counsel, Alberto Gonzales, February 2, 2004
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The Justice Department had sent a memorandum arguing that since Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups did not represent any state, were not signatories to the Geneva Conventions, and commonly committed atrocities in violation of the Geneva Conventions, then there was no obligation for America, or any signatory nation, to protect captives of these terrorist organizations. See {589866} for a contrary position that was taken.
The problem that was facing the nation in the early 21st century was when we captured a terrorist, was he a combatant or was he accused by a personal enemy, and had he been tortured to say he was a terrorist. The issue grew more complicated when terrorist suspects were brought to American territory at Guantanamo Bay, and the Courts have always held that a foreigner on American soil had a right to have access to the Federal Courts just as Citizens do. Complicating the situation more was the fact that a few American citizens had joined the terrorists and were they entitled to a civilian trial as all other Americans were.
This manual was still in force during the Iraq war 50 years later.
In the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars the U. S. government was much criticized for not treating captured Taliban and others as prisoners war. This Article is their main justification. The Taliban and Al Quida did not meet most of the criteria and therefore the convention did not apply to them.
Abu Gharib was a prison in Iraq in which the officers in charge and the command structure failed to prevent a number of American soldiers from abusing and sexually and religiously humiliating Muslim prisoners. Photographs of the abuses traveled around the world and that particular unusual incident unfortunately fit the propaganda preconception of the Americans promoted by Islamic fundamentalist extremists. Tragically, as General McChrystal observed, Abu Gharib served as a recruiting tool for the terrorists.
The American military and CIA officials made a number of errors in dealing with some of the prisoners. Once military desecrated a Muslim Holy Book with urine, many or the active and violent prisoners were kept in solitary confinement, but secrecy allowed Islamic propagandists to claim that this was done with almost all. Worst of all CIA interrogators were allowed to use ‘enhanced techniques’ (torture). Prisoners were not allowed to have reasonable contact to attorneys and where there were, these were monitored. Most of the prisoners were never charged with anything and yet they never received sentences and no one had any idea whether or not they would ever be charged, tried, sentenced or released. Even where there were some prisoners that the American authorities were willing to release, only a few were as their original counties would not accept them. Islamic extremist terrorist recruiters use Guantanamo to propagandize against America, and many new terrorist recruits were primarily motivated they claimed by the way that fellow Muslims had been treated in Guantanamo. Almost all agreed that Guantanamo was a negative, but it became very difficult to close it down and despite all the errors of operation, very few Americans were willing to return all these men to the battlefield to re-jojn the terrorists and other countries were unwilling to take the responsibility for their custody.
Hamas had fired thousands of rockets and other missiles at Israeli population centers—war crimes under the Geneva Conventions. Israel finally retaliated against Hamas facilities in Gaza. However, in an unprecedented effort to avoid civilian casualties, the Israeli Defense Forces warned the people by indicating which targets they were going to strike. They also dropped leaflets in Arabic telling the civilians that they are not the targets but to try and avoid harm to them and their families, they should evacuate the neighborhoods that would be under attack. Hamas had placed their missile launchers and other weapons in and near schools, hospitals, mosques and civilian housing risking their civilian population—see {640841}.
- Born: September 13, 1945
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William Howard Taft IV is an attorney who has served in the United States government under several Republican administrations. He is the son of William Howard Taft III and the great-grandson of President William Howard Taft.
