More on Torture , The Geneva Conventions, And The Alberto Gonzalez Hearings

Link

Senator Cornyn of Texas, sitting next to Judge Gonzalez, holds up a copy of-- you guessed it! -- the Geneva Conventions.

Jonah Goldberg analyzes the Alberto Gonzales hearings in Townhall.com. An excerpt:

As for the Geneva Convention and Al-Qaida, you'd have to be higher than a moonbat to treat them as signatories to it. Everything they do is a violation of the convention. It may be fun to mug for the cameras and criticize Gonzales for saying that the Geneva Convention is "outdated" when it comes to Al-Qaida. But unless you think Khaleed Sheikh Mohammed deserves an allowance in Swiss francs that he can spend at the local canteen, you have to concede Gonzales is right.

Few issues are as easily resolved as the trumped-up nonsense the Democrats are purveying about Gonzalez. The Geneva Conventions intended to set up the rules of war. (Whether that is possible is a question for another time.) To benefit from the rules of war, those who engage in war must abide by the rules. This is not difficult.

An example from World War II: One of the rules of war is that combatants, to be considered soldiers who benefit from the rules, must wear the uniform of their country. During the Battle of the Bulge a number of German soldiers (I think they were SS, but I am not sure) put on U.S. Army uniforms and infiltrated American lines. They were caught and summarily executed. No due process. No POW status. Just shot. The incident was widely known and properly reported. No one covered it up. And you know what? There were no war crimes prosecutions, because the Geneva conventions do not apply to soldiers who do not follow the rules.

Apply this to Al-Qaida. Do they follow any rules at all? Just what is the uniform of Al-Quaida? And what nation do they represent?

I could rant on and on, but there is simply no doubt that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to Al-Quaida. Even the Ted Kennedys of the world do not argue otherwise—because they know they can’t!

Despite this fact, the U.S. applies most, if not all, of the Geneva Conventions to Al-Qaida prisoners. The instructions from the Secretary of Defense have always been to treat prisoners humanely. No Democrat will ever mention this and no one outside Fox News will ever report it. As for the difficulty of effectively interrogating these people, see my post below.

If you are ambitious enough to want to read all the clap-trap that the Democrats threw at Gonzalez, the entire transcript is here.