2001 November 14

Vice President Cheney: “Terrorists Don’t Deserve to be Treated as Prisoners of War”

 

Vice President Dick Cheney’s stated on this day that “captured terrorists don’t deserve to be treated as prisoners of war.” The views in Cheney’s statement, and Bush administration policy, violated Common Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which the U.S. had ratified and was therefore bound to honor. See December 8, 1949, for the Geneva Conventions.

Many policies of the George W. Bush administration in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks violated U.S. and international law.

For the four major Supreme Court decisions in which the Court ruled against the administration on questions of presidential power, international law, and due process of law, see Rasul v. Bush (June 28, 2004), Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (June 28, 2004), Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, June 29, 2006), and Boumediene v. Bush (June 12, 2008).

Learn more about Dick Cheney: Barton Gellman, Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency (2008)

Read the Third Geneva Convention (1949 regarding the treatment of prisoners of war): http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/INTRO/375?OpenDocument

Read the article “Remembering Why Americans Loathe Dick Cheney” here

Read: Susan Herman, Taking Liberties: The War on Terror and the Erosion of American Democracy (2011)

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