Of all the questionable post-9/11 acts perpetrated by the Bush Administration [which I generally support but can specifically criticize], the curious detention of folks at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base was the one that always had me feeling uneasy. The detainees were treated as, essentially, stateless persons, given little in the way of civil rights. I have no doubt that they were treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention in general, but I was frustrated that they weren’t just classified as POW’s and treated as such.
The good news is that 100 or so detainees will soon be released.
CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk called the news of the upcoming releases “a clear indication that the White House is under pressure from allies as well as from the Supreme Court to set standards for the holding of suspects in the war on terror.” Rightly so.