[Mb-civic] Beyond Guantanamo - Matthew Waxman - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Beyond Guantanamo

By Matthew Waxman
Saturday, August 20, 2005; Page A17

This month the United States and the government of Afghanistan reached 
an understanding that will allow for the gradual transfer of Afghan 
detainees now held by the Defense Department at Guantanamo Bay and in 
Afghanistan to the control of Afghan authorities. This is not only a 
significant step forward in the U.S.-Afghan security relationship but 
the latest example of how the United States and its coalition partners 
can share the burdens in mitigating the dangers terrorist fighters pose.

Terrorists must be captured and prevented from returning to the global 
battlefield. But it need not -- nor in many cases should it -- be the 
United States that detains them for the long term. All nations that have 
joined forces in the global war on terrorism share responsibility for 
keeping captured terrorists from returning to violence.

American armed forces will continue to capture and detain terrorist 
fighters like the approximately 510 enemy combatants currently at 
Guantanamo. The principle that a state is legally entitled to detain 
enemy fighters until the enemy -- in this case, al Qaeda and its 
affiliates, including the Taliban -- is defeated is not a new one; it is 
deeply rooted in international law. The Geneva Convention, for example, 
reflects the well-established notion that captured enemy fighters can be 
kept off the battlefield until the war is over.

But at the same time, the United States has no interest in holding 
anyone unnecessarily. Besides the moral cost, unnecessary detentions 
would undermine our message of freedom and democracy, which is essential 
to combating violent extremism. And beyond these humanitarian and 
political reasons, detaining anyone unnecessarily would divert valuable 
military resources in the war on terrorism.

To balance these demands, the United States has taken the extraordinary 
step during an ongoing war of instituting individual review processes to 
release detainees assessed as no longer constituting a significant 
threat, and to transfer other detainees to their home countries or other 
countries for possible detention, investigation or prosecution as 
appropriate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/19/AR2005081901461.html
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