[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: a dumb query? pls humor me



On Wed, 04 Apr 2007 16:33:28 -0700, zfh wrote in
[🔎] 360937.25915.qm@web83205.mail.mud.yahoo.com:


> Sorry to break into your offtopic rants, but I can't resist this one. 
> Under the Geneva Conventions, enemy combatants that wear no uniforms and

..like the passengers onboard flight UA93 on 9/11?

> commit acts of murder and sabotage are considered to be spies and may be

..you speak of murderers, saboteurs and spies, who may only be shot after 
having received a verdict so ordering in a trial for the murderer, and in 
an Article 90 hearing _and_ a trial for the saboteur and the spy.  The 
latter 2 generally need to commit some war crime to earn a verdict, but 
can still be held as POW for the duration of the war without committing 
any war crimes, read especially the commentary to Article 46 for 
background:
http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/WebART/470-750056?OpenDocument
http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/COM/470-750056?OpenDocument


> leagaly shot on sight. 

..this applies only to mercenaries, who first needs to be identified as 
such under Article 47:
http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/WebART/470-750057?OpenDocument
http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/COM/470-750057?OpenDocument

> During the cold war, the understanding developed that everyone has 
> spies and that if you don't kill mine I won't kill yours.  

..true, and irrelevant, as the high contracting powers instead agreed to 
go after mercenaries.

> Are you old enough to remember that famous antiwar photo from
> the Tet offensive in Vietnam of an ARVN soldier shooting a captured
> vietcong agent in the head?  Under the geneva convention, that was
> legal. 

..citation?  ;o)

> Al Queda and the Taliban don't care about anyones rights or
> freedoms.  We need to follow the rules because we are who we are and
> need to stay that way if free nations are to survive.  Though there have
> been some abuses, military tribunals and Gitmo are not necessarily
> outside the rules when dealing with an organized terrorist threat.

..really?  ;o)  They are.  On one line:
http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/ihl-article-300906?
opendocument

..a good starting point for further reading:
http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/section_ihl_in_brief?
OpenDocument

-- 
..med vennlig hilsen = with Kind Regards from Arnt... ;o)
...with a number of polar bear hunters in his ancestry...
  Scenarios always come in sets of three: 
  best case, worst case, and just in case.



Reply to: