By Matthew Bisanz
President Bush recently introduced a bill entitled “Military Commissions Act of 2006.” Buried in this 17,862 word, 86 page bill is a very interesting new law that reads in part “[this bill] shall fully satisfy United States obligations with respect to the standards for detention and treatment established by section 1 of common article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, with the exception of the obligations imposed by subsections 1(b) and 1(d) of such article.” The United States became subject to the Geneva Convention sin 1950 while the war crimes committed by the Germans and Japanese against prisoners of war were still fresh in the minds of many, if not all Americans. The idea an execution of a POW could be carried out without a duly constituted court under a fair due process system was against everything the average person believed. However, under the new military commissions act of 2006, such things suddenly become possible. Subsection 1(b) of the Geneva Convention explicitly bans the taking of hostages, however, the new law permits the taking of hostages to compel action on the part of the hostage.Further, the Geneva Convention bans “Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment.” In the past, this has been interpreted to include such things as parading POWs before the media or extreme sleep deprivation. Under the new act, this is now narrowly defined as torture, inhuman treatment, biological experiments, murder, mutilation, intentionally cause serious injury, rape, sexual assault and hostage taking with specific intents. This would be the equivalent of changing the Bill of Rights to define freedom of speech as oral communication under 30 decibels occurring at least 100 feet from a public building. No American would willingly accept a more stringent re-definition of our basic rights on the grounds that they are too vague and that in the course of their duties the police might accidentally violate them. Bush’s new bill begs the question of what precisely we are doing to the detainees that is so severe we even approach the line of an outrage upon personal dignity. Additionally, the new act prohibits U.S. civilian courts from hearing matters relating to article 3 of the Geneva Convention. Instead, military tribunals will handle such matters. These tribunals may meet in secret and not show the accused the evidence against them before rendering a verdict. The argument is these terrorists will somehow gain new information from the evidence, communicate it to the outside world and endanger all freedom loving Americans. Yet civilian courts have many ways of dealing with classified evidence. In some cases, the guilty party is not permitted to see the evidence and instead only his lawyer is. In others, the evidence is kept off the official court record and only disclosed in the judge’s chambers to both sides. Yet these enemy combatants, who are kept in one of the most secure prisons, on an island surrounded by thousands of armed soldiers, might in some way use the information used to convict them to harm Americans. Are we actually expected to believe that there is an al-Qaeda submarine waiting off the coast of Cuba to pick up a detainee’s message in a bottle?No, Americans for over 200 years have fought and died in the defense of freedom. Around the world, America is known as one of the greatest protectors of the innocent with this call built into our basic governing documents. When Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence “He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power,” he was not referring to a positive action by the King of England. He was referring to an action that would create an absolute tyranny over the American people. America has a duty to continue as a leader in the field of human rights and this means giving the broadest possible meaning to all international agreements. Because if we don’t fulfill our duty to protect the rights of those we despise, how can we expect those who despise us to fulfill their duty?
Matthew G. Bisanz is a senior political science student. You may e-mail him at [email protected]
