“Asked by reporters about the treatment [of prisoners captured in the war on terror], [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld suggested at a January 11 [2002] Pentagon news briefing that they would be ‘handled not as prisoners of war, because they’re not, but as unlawful combatants [who] do not have any rights under the Geneva Convention.’ […]
Category: quotes
1/11/2002
On January 11, 2002, Chief Legal Advisor to the Department of State William H. Taft IV “submitted the State Department’s response to [Office of Legal Counsel John] Yoo’s [January 9, 2002] memorandum [which denied Geneva Convention protections to al-Qaeda and the Taliban]. Taft described Yoo’s reasoning as ‘seriously flawed,’ ‘procedurally impossible,’ and ‘unsound.’ Taft pointed […]
1/11/2002
“Military officials said they had culled the most dangerous of the roughly 10,000 prisoners caught there [Afghanistan] and shipped them to Guantánamo Bay. ‘These are people who would gnaw through hydraulic lines at the back of a C-17 to bring it down,’ Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said as […]
1/11/2002
“As the first load of prisoners arrived at the new military prison camp at Guantánamo, Cuba, on January 11, 2002, he [Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld] declared them ‘unlawful combatants’ who ‘do not have any rights under the Geneva Convention.’ In fact, the Geneva Conventions provide explicit protections to anyone taken prisoner in an international […]
1/11/2002
“A [Gallup] poll taken [from January 11-14, 2002] just before the ‘axis of evil’ speech [by President Bush] showed that 77 percent of Americans supported military action in Iraq and just 17 percent opposed it.” – Peter Baker, Days of Fire, Page 191 […]
1/10/2002
On January 10, 2002, “US flies out first 20 Taliban and Al’Qaida prisoners to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.” – Ahmed Rashid, Taliban, Page 266 […]
1/9/2002
According to Defense Watch on January 9, 2002, Sonny Razon, the former Philippine colonel who transported attempted bomber Abdul Hakim Murad after his arrest, said: ” ‘We told the Americans about the plans to turn planes into flying bombs as far back as 1995… Why didn’t they pay attention?’ ” – Peter Lance, 1000 Years […]
1/9/2002
“A January 7-9, 2002, national Gallup poll showed that only 6 percent of Americans were opposed to our going to war with Afghanistan. Ninety-four percent approved, with virtually equal support among Republicans and Democrats.” – Vincent Bugliosi, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, Page 203 […]
1/9/2002
“A forty-two-page draft memorandum circulated on January 9, 2002, by Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo concluded that neither group [al-Qaeda and the Taliban] was entitled to prisoner-of-war status or any protection at all under Geneva [Conventions]. Al-Qaeda, Yoo wrote, was a stateless entity with no rights under international law. The Taliban was similarly deemed […]
1/9/2002
On January 9, 2002, John Yoo, a lawyer in the Office of Legal Counsel “circulated a draft memorandum to Bush officials that would provide much of the legal reasoning for the administration’s future actions concerning the detention and interrogation of prisoners. Yoo…concluded that neither the Taliban nor al-Qaeda were entitled to prisoner-of-war status, or the […]