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>>>Last night I was watching BBC TV, and in a news program they were discussing this subject (Geneva Convention), and interviewed a Red Cross official. He pointed out exactly the same point we are discussing now: both countries (the U.S. and Iraq) disrespected the convention, starting with the U.S., then they showed the Afeganistan POWs in Guantanamo, marching in chains in theirs orange clothes.
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>>You call them POWs, and my point is that it is subject to debate...
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>Steve;
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>The military status of the Afghan detainees has been defined. They are not a part of a legal military organization. What we should do is take all the drug dealers here and in other countries and place them with the Afghan detainees. Then throw away the key!

Tom,

The military status of the Afghan "detainees" has been defined, leading to their conditions of detention, by the U.S. and most specifically, I believe General John Ashcroft, Secretary of Justice.
I have not heard that other countries, or the U.N., has sanctioned thi status and the concomitant conditions. I understand that it took months for the International Committee of the Red Cross to gain access to the "detainees".

People there have been held for well over a year without benefit of representation and with exercise allowed for 15 minutes every 3 days.
Some there are known to have simply been supporters of the Taliban and the Taliban are yet another of those political organizations that the U.S. once supported in the form of $$$ and arms. The Taliban were the 'legal' ruling party of Afghanistan and it is unclear that ALL of the Taliban supporters now held at Guantanamo Bay were Al-Qaida adherents. It is most likely that some were not.

The U.K. Supreme Court, having absolutely no jurisdiction, tried to send a message to the U.S. Supreme Court to have them act on the issue but, apparently, the U.S. Supreme Court opted to say that it had no jurisdiction over an area that is not sovereign U.S. territory.

I think it is fair to say that much of the rest of the world has "concerns" regardng the treatment of "detainees" at Gitmo by the model of democracy and justice for the planet.
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>Tom