Cruel and Unusual Photography
According to the Red Cross, the US has indeed violated the Geneva Convention in its treatment of the al Qaeda prisoners at Camp X-ray. Was it the hoods? The mittens? The sedation? The cages? The chains? The haircuts? Nope: it's the photographs. According to the Red Cross "the conventions clearly forbade exposing prisoners of war to 'public curiosity.'"
It seems to me that "public curiosity" on this matter may be beyond the military's control. But leaving that aside, can you imagine the outcry had the US acted to institute a "blackout" banning all photographs of the detainees? Clearly, the photos were intended to show that the US believed it had nothing to hide. At any rate, it's hard to imagine would-be Geneva Convention purists having an easy time integrating this finding into their Camp X-ray critique, since so much of it was based on these very photographs, which, it now turns out, should not have existed in the first place.
Posted by Dr. Frank at January 21, 2002 03:52 PM | TrackBack