Brett Kavanaugh Quotes

While Taliban fighters had an initial claim to protection under the conventions, they lost POW status by failing to obey the standards of conduct for legal combatants: wearing uniforms, a responsible command structure, and obeying the laws of war.

It has never been the case, that if you capture an enemy combatant in war, you have to give him a Jury trial.

Guantanamo Bay is a facility that I think should be utilized by the United States for detainees, say, out of Syria.

The United States of course wants to follow the highest standards of conduct with regard to enemy combatants who follow the rules of war. It should and does follow the Geneva Conventions scrupulously when fighting the armed forces of other nations that have signed the Geneva Conventions or follow their principles.

It is important to recognize the differences between the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism. The treatment of those detained at Abu Ghraib is governed by the Geneva Conventions, which have been signed by both the U.S. and Iraq.

Al Qaeda doesn't abide by the Geneva Conventions, so in my opinion, they should not be afforded the protections of them.

President Bush and his commanders announced early in the conflict that the Conventions applied.

I understand why so many Americans were angry when I was first discovered in Afghanistan. I realize many still are, but I hope in time that feeling will change.

The U.S. military has done a phenomenal job of creating these facilities almost over-night and dealing with these sworn enemies of America with more respect and dignity than they ever would have considered according our officers had they captured any.

In light of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, critics are arguing that abuses of Iraqi prisoners are being produced by a climate of disregard for the laws of war.

Military police know what to do, they know the Geneva Conventions, and their objective is to provide a safe, secure, fair environment for prisoners under their control.

American soldiers had to guard prisoners on the inside while receiving mortar and weapons fire from the outside. Guantanamo is distant from any battlefield, making it far more secure.

Under the Geneva Convention, for example, a POW is required only to provide name, rank, and serial number and cannot receive any benefits for cooperating.

A decision by the Supreme Court to subject Guantanamo to judicial review would eliminate these advantages.

Perhaps the most basic rule of the law of armed conflict is that civilians and civilian objects must not be made the object of direct attack, although incidental injuries caused to such persons or objects in the course of a legitimate attack must be proportionate to the purpose of the attack.

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 Geneva Conventions cover everybody: military, civilian, everybody. We created this made-up category of unlawful enemy combatant in an effort to circumvent the conventions. But in fact, the other name for unlawful enemy combatant, in Geneva Convention terms, is either civilian or spy and saboteur. If they are civilians they can be prosecuted.... We should be prosecuting these people and we should be doing it in civilian courts. But to say we don't have to do any of these things because they are not covered by the Geneva Conventions is just a misapplication of the law.

The main problem with applying the Geneva Convention to detainees is that it would interfere with effective interrogation.

I was not. . As regards myself, I never had any control over the prisoners except those that were captured on the field of battle. Those it was my business to send to Richmond to the provost marshal. In regard to their disposition afterwards I had no control. I never gave an order about it.

According to the laws of war, a warring party can just walk away from civilian harm that they have caused.

I don't need a U.N. report to tell me whether my army... operates according to the international law guidelines.

I promise you, every insurgent, freedom fighter, and stray gunman in Iraq who we arrested knew the ropes, knew that the way out was to announce he had been tortured by the Americans, ill treated, or prevented from reading the Koran or eating his breakfast or watching the television.

I'm not hugging the Guantanamo location, but our right to hold people under the laws of war as enemy combatants, I think, is unarguable, and we need to stand up for that.

In my view, targeted lethal force is at its least controversial when it is on its strongest, most traditional legal foundation. The essential mission of the U.S. military is to capture or kill an enemy. Armies have been doing this for thousands of years. As part of a congressionally authorized armed conflict, the foundation is even stronger.

It takes time to understand the difference between civilian POWs and military POWs. There's an educational process.