Unlawful Combatant Research Paper

There is a fine line between taking the enemy captive as part of war and torturing them. I believe that during war it is inevitable that people are going to be held captive as part of war, but there is some sort of humanity that needs to be upheld at the end of the day. There are many international treaties such as the Geneva Convention that many nations are a part of. The idea behind the convention is to make sure that all of the nations are on board with one another on how they are going to treat people. The problem is that most other nations besides the United States have a different mindset of how they operate and how they believe people should be treated in situations of war or high profile people. Most people would like to live in the United States because of all of the rights everyone has here in the country.

     This definition is a very loose interpretation of the meaning of Prisoners of War (POWs). POWs throughout history have received harsh and brutal treatment. Prisoners received everything from torture to execution. However, in recent times efforts have been made to reduce these treatments and to get humane treatment for POWs. These attempts include the Geneva Convention of 1949. Unfortunately, during the Vietnam Conflict, these “rules” of war were not always obeyed, as they are now.

The Geneva Convention and its participants keep all prisoners of war on a uniformed playing field, to prevent

On U.S. territory and the government argues that they therefore have neither constitutional rights nor the rights guaranteed under the Geneva Convention, the international treaty governing detention during wartime. Basic principles like due process,

Police brutality is a very big problem in America. There are many reports of Police brutality every year, Some of those cases the officer is fully responsible for his actions, and other times the victims played a part in antagonizing the officer. Police have misused their power for a while now, but recently it’s been more publicized. In this year alone, there has been an extreme jump in police brutality and the publication of it.

government officials, including President Roosevelt. Prior to World War II concentration camp was used to simply describe prison camps outside of the normal judicial system; however, in light of the atrocities committed in Nazi concentration camps, the term has garnered an association with horrific abuses. In contrast, the term “prison camp”

the Armed Forces are entitled to POW status if they meet the criteria specified in the treaty.

Allegedly, the outsourcing of terror suspects to countries such as Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Syria, countries that engage in torture, also occurred. In addition, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported on methods of physical and psychological coercion used to extract information from prisoners in Iraq. These methods include beatings with hard objects, slapping, punching, kicking, prolonged exposure to the sun, and parading detainees naked, sometimes with women’s underwear on their heads. In some cases, threats were issued against the detainees’ families (Ramsey 105). Acts such as these are what determined the necessity of the 1984 convention prohibiting torture, and yet the abuse continues.

Guards showed no mercy toward any POW and assaulted them regularly. Among punishments the hostages suffered included: being beaten with random objects, punched, kicked, being stripped of their clothes, etc. Various POWs’ developed welts and sores from all of the treatment they stomached. In Unbroken Louis states “Men were beaten or folding their arms, for sitting naked to help heal sores, for cleaning their teeth, for talking in their sleep (Pg 197).” Guards would even randomly wake POWs’ in the middle of the night just to scare them, and get some entertainment. For some the pain became too much to

combatant could be detained, if it was determined that he was in fact an enemy

Enemy Combatants are essentially individual that have been acquired and/or detained as a direct involvement and/or supportive participation during war times against the American people. (Mortlock, 2010, pp. 375-404)The labeling of Illegal Combatants refers to a person who engages in combat “without” meeting the requirements according to the laws of war delineated within the Third Geneva Convention (ICRC, 2014). The significance that habeas corpus plays for such combatants allows for the challenging of a potential overly exerted authority that government may have inadvertently placed within the power of the president. It relevance to such labeled individuals is nothing short than the sense of freedom and hope that justice will not be unjust.

The documentary film the Response (2010) provides insight on a military tribunal hearing that was conducted in the United States (U.S.) military prison infamously known as Guantanamo Bay located in within the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. In this film, enemy combatant Aasif Mandvi is the main character. He had been imprisoned for four years due to the suspicion of having connections to the U.S enemy al-Qaeda. It is alleged that he is was involved in a bombing conspiracy specified by classified documents (The Response, 2010). As defined by Neubauer and Fradella (2014), enemy combatants are unlawful combatants that do not qualify for the prisoners of war classification under the Geneva Conventions. Typically, the individuals seized by

In the United States, one of the major methods in obtaining crucial information has been through the use of Guantanamo Bay. While many have condemned of the torture that is believed to occur there, not only does Guantanamo Bay comply with national and international standards, but it also complies with Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions (Meese 1) which states

A war crime is an unjust act of violence in which a military personnel violates the laws and acceptable behaviors of a war. Despite all the violence in a war, a soldier shooting another is not considered a war crime because it is not a violation to the laws and practices of a war, and it is considered just. A war crime is defined as a “violations [violation] of the laws and customs of war” (“War Crimes”), and are attacks “against civilian populations, prisoners of war, or in some cases enemy soldiers in the field” (Friedman). War crimes are typically committed with weapons or by uncommon, cruel, devastating military methods and are “…Committed primarily by military personnel” (Friedman). There are many different types of war crimes one can

In order to answer this question of rights in captivity, leaders must assess the situation through the lens of an overarching value and a criterion, or means to achieve the value. Executive Order 10631 lays out the duties and responsibilities of US service members in captivity. According to Article III, it is the responsibility of the captured to “continue to resist by all means necessary” (Executive Order No. 10631, 1955). We thus accept this responsibility as the mission of the POW, and ultimately, the value under which we will assess this ethical dilemma.