"Six Floors" of Detainee Operations in the Post 9/11 World
Abstract
There are persuasive legal, ethical and practical reasons for clarifying categories of detainees and improving guidance to those conducting detainee and interrogation operations in the post-9/11 environment. Analysts contend that the failure to categorize detainees captured during the GWOT as POWs under the Geneva Conventions, and the guidance for the treatment of detainees relegated to the status of "unlawful combatants," have led to widespread abuses. The US military is in the process of updating regulations and guidance on detainee operations to recognize new realities and address such criticism. This article advocates a specific direction for that process. The Geneva Conventions should be revised so as to provide more specific guidance for the treatment of unlawful combatants and to recognize a new category of combatants terrorists. Absent the lengthy process of acquiring international consensus to update the Geneva Conventions, the US should promulgate its own delineation of categories of detainees, and publish standards for treatment by categories in compliance with the Geneva Conventions and other treaty obligations as currently written.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 18, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA432745
Entities
People
- Thomas E. Ayres
Organizations
- United States Army War College