George Bush on

Military Combatants: The Bush Administration has labeled those suspected of al-Queda ties as "enemy combatants." This label does not guarantee the detainees the human rights outlined in the Geneva Convention specific to Prisoner of War status. The prisoners were being held at Guantanmo Bay. However,a report released on October 12, 2004 by the Human Rights Watch explains that 11 al-Queda detainees have disappeared. According to the report "Central Intelligence Agency is holding al-Qaeda suspects in "secret locations," reportedly outside the United States, with no notification to their families, no access to the International Committee of the Red Cross or oversight of any sort of their treatment, and in some cases, no acknowledgement that they are even being held." Under the Geneva Convention the Red Cross must be granted access to the detainees, and International Treaties prohibit detaining in secret locations.

George Bush

Description of the candidate's position: According to a CNN special report Bush does support labeling US citizens as enemy combatants. George Bush asserted authority as Commander-in-Chief in the "war on terror" to hold captured enemy combatants indefinitely, without charge and without access to a lawyer on foreign or U.S. soil. This policy was applied to U.S. citizens, as well. Bush set up a system of special military commissions and procedures to adjudicate each case. Several hundred remain in U.S. custody. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned aspects of this policy (2004) and ordered prompt individual hearings to determine the status of each detainee. FCNL Website

Quotation from the candidate: Supports labeling detainees as military combatants. link

Assessment of the proposal:

Positive: According to the Bush Administration al-Queda detainees need not be granted prisoner of war status because the "war on terror" is unlike any other war.

Negative: Human Rights Watch wants all detainees brought to justice under the law and granted Red Cross assistance. HRW is critical of the Bush Administration's treatment of enemy combatants: "Those guilty of serious crimes must be brought to justice before fair trials," said Brody. "If the United States embraces the torture and 'disappearance' of its opponents, it abandons its ideals and international obligations and becomes a lesser nation."

Comparison: John Kerry does not support detaining US citizens and labeling them enemy combatants.

Link to Kerry's brief on military combatants