Talk:Mohammed Ahmad Said Al Edah

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I have a problem with the last editted paragraph in this set of edits. I think it is a mistake to improve the spelling, grammar, or use of punctuation in quoted material.

The phrase "had previously been correctly determined to match" was replaced by the word "fit". This might seem like a shorter, clearer statement. But it is also incorrect. And, in my opinion, it incorrectly states a very important aspect of the Combatant Status Review Tribunals..

The Geneva Conventions, to which the USA is a signatory, states that all captives have to be given the protections of POW status -- until a competent tribunal determines they don't qualify for POW status. AR 190-8 specifies, in detail, how the US Armed Services should conduct Tribunals that fulfilled its treaty obligations. The Bush administration wanted to skip this step. The Supreme Court ruled in Rasul v. Bush, that the Bush administration couldn't skip this step.

The CSRT's task was not to make the determination whether the captives qualified for POW status. Bush asserted this by administrative fiat. The CSRT's task was not to make the determination whether the captives "fit" the definition of "enemy combatant" -- the DoD implied that this determination had already been made -- the role of the CSRT was to review those previously made, secret, informal determinations -- not to make the first determinations themselves.

Cheers! -- Geo Swan 22:31, 22 December 2006 (UTC)