Homeland Security

Camp X-Ray detainees justified by terror war, says US adviser

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, Jan 12, IRNA -- A legal adviser to US Secretary of State 
Colin Powell has attempted to justify the continuing detention 
without charge or trial of over 650 foreign Muslims at Guantanamo Bay 
in Cuba by claiming it was governed by the laws of war. 
In an unusual article for the Financial Times Monday, William 
Taft mounted a defence of the controversial detentions, including most
for over two years, by arguing that the war against terrorism and the 
war in Afghanistan was "far from over." 
"It is therefore premature to say the detainees in Guantanamo 
must be released because the war is over," he said. Under the 
applicable laws and conventions relating to armed conflicts, 
"captured enemy combatants may be detained for the duration of 
hostilities." 
His attempt to justify the continued detentions comes as 135 peers
and MPs from the British parliament are filing a legal brief with the 
US Supreme Court in support of an appeal by 16 detainees that they 
should be entitled to make a challenge detention to a civilian court. 
"Nothing in the law of war requires a country to charge enemy 
combatants with crimes, provide access to counsel in the absence of 
such charges, or allow them to challenge their detention in court," 
Taft said. 
Many human rights groups and international lawyers have argued 
that the detentions are illegal and have warned the US that it is 
setting a dangerous precedent by undermining international law and 
norms. 
HC/BH/212 
End