John Ashcroft Quotes
The main problem with applying the Geneva Convention to detainees is that it would interfere with effective interrogation.
There has always been some confusion in the case of the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Geneva and Hague conventions are very clear when prisoners are official members of an state’s armed force with uniforms, insignia and ranks. It is also clear with respect to civilians. But the combatants of the insurgent and terrorist forces fall in between, and international law is less clear. The George W. Bush administration at first took the position that the captured combatants were not captured soldiers and were therefore not entitled to the treatment due that status. But the military regulations made no distinction as to how prisoners in combat should be treated. It is a very gray area, except that in either case, torture is illegal under U. S. and under International law.
John Ashcroft, Attorney General of the United States (Republican), U. S. Senator (Republican, MO) Missouri Governor (Republican), Quoted by Doug Fife, Testimony, House Hearings on Torture
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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.
When the Union army began using Blacks as recruits, the South threatened to execute any Negro soldier they captured. Some Southerners opposed execution but favored enslavement of captured Northern Black soldiers. The Lincoln threat seems to have worked, although Lincoln opposed executing Southern officers in retaliation for the atrocities at southern prisoner of war camps
Germany had invaded and occupied much of Europe. These two fronts accounted for the majority of the German casualties. The Germans not only violated the Geneva Convention and the Laws of War repeatedly, but as you can see from this quotation, it was deliberate policy. Keitel was tried and hanged after the war. See {621438} .
This was untrue. The CIA used several forms of torture on high value detainees. The torture was psychological and physical. Even the FBI had agents who observed CIA interrogations and complained to their supervisors. For cover, the George W. Bush administration, got 3 Justice Department Attorneys to write a secret memo defining certain types of torture as “enhanced interrogation”. Water Boarding, for which American soldiers had been court martialed and convicted for torture then became enhanced interrogation, and was used on a few terrorists. Because of the rigged Justice Department memo, the CIA claimed that they did not torture people. Another thing the CIA did was to turn over enemy to the intelligence services of third countries like Egypt, where torture was used commonly with no regard for the Geneva convention or other human rights provision. CIA agents then watched and asked questions but they claimed that they did not torture which was in some sense literally true.
Several American soldiers have been court marshalled and found guilty of illegal torture for Warterboarding prisoners to induce them to provide information. Most experts agree that intelligence received this way is highly unreliable in that victims will say anything they think the torturer wants to hear to get the torture to stop.
John David Ashcroft is an American lawyer, lobbyist, songwriter and former politician who served as the 79th U.S. Attorney General (2001–2005), in the George W. Bush Administration. He later founded The Ashcroft Group, a Washington D.C. lobbying firm.
