talk to me big whitey talk to me!
The committee’s conclusion was that detaining persons indefinitely without charge is a per se violation of the convention. Well, that’s just simply legally inaccurate. There is nothing in the convention that says anything about holding people indefinitely. This is an issue that we know is out there, but there is nothing in this convention that says anything about holding people, so it’s outside of the scope for them to be calling for the closure of Guantanamo. This convention has to do with torture, and we have said that torture is clearly prohibited. Torture is prohibited in Guantanamo. It’s prohibited anywhere in the world by any of our U.S. government agencies holding people anywhere in the world. It’s also simply wrong, as a matter of law, to state that holding individuals indefinitely without charging them is wrong. In any kind of a war, you hold people indefinitely, until the end of the conflict, without charge. - John Bellinger, Legal Advisor to the Department of State and Torture.
