Military Police: Enemy Prisoners of War, Retained Personnel, Civilian Internees and Other Detainees is the full title of a

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

regulation usually referred to as AR 190-8, that lays out how the United States Army should treat captives. This document is notable as the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

advised the

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philipp ...

, in its ruling on ''

Hamdi v. Rumsfeld ''Hamdi v. Rumsfeld'', 542 U.S. 507 (2004), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court recognized the power of the U.S. government to detain enemy combatants, including U.S. citizens, but ruled that detainees who are U.S. citizens m ...

'' in 2004, that the

Tribunals A tribunal, generally, is any person or institution with authority to judge, adjudicate on, or determine claims or disputes—whether or not it is called a tribunal in its title. For example, an advocate who appears before a court with a si ...

the DoD convened to review the status of the

Guantanamo captive The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Guant ...

s should be modeled after the Tribunals described in AR-190-8.

The authority of AR 190-8 Tribunals

As a signatory to the

Geneva Conventions upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Conven ...

, the United States is obliged to convene a "

competent tribunal Competent Tribunal is a term used in Article 5 paragraph 2 of the Third Geneva Convention, which states: ICRC commentary on competent tribunals The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) commentary on Article 5 of the Third Geneva Con ...

" to determine the status of any captive "should any doubt arise" as to their proper status. The

Third Geneva Convention The Third Geneva Convention, relative to the treatment of prisoners of war, is one of the four treaties of the Geneva Conventions. The Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War was first adopted in 1929, but significantl ...

states that all captives must be accorded the protections of

POW A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war ...

status until a competent tribunal convenes, and determines the captive does not qualify for such status. *AR-190-8 Tribunals are authorized to confirm that a captive is a

lawful combatant Combatant is the legal status of an individual who has the right to engage in hostilities during an armed conflict. The legal definition of "combatant" is found at article 43(2) of Additional Protocol I (AP1) to the Geneva Conventions of 1949. It ...

, after all, who should continue to be detained as a prisoner of war until hostilities cease. *AR-190-8 Tribunals are authorized to determine that a captive is an innocent

civilian Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not "combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant, b ...

, who should be immediately released. *AR-190-8 Tribunals are authorized to confirm that a captive is a

combatant Combatant is the legal status of an individual who has the right to engage in hostilities during an armed conflict. The legal definition of "combatant" is found at article 43(2) of Additional Protocol I (AP1) to the Geneva Conventions of 1949. It ...

who acted in a way that he or she should be stripped of POW status. According to the Geneva Conventions, only captives who have been stripped of POW status, by a competent tribunal, can face charges for war crimes they committed in situation of

armed conflict War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular ...

Structure of AR-190-8 Tribunals and Combatant Status Review Tribunals compared

June 4, 2007 dismissal of charges against Guantanamo captives

On June 4, 2007 Colonel

Peter Brownback Peter E. Brownback III is a retired military officer and lawyer. He was appointed in 2004 by general John D. Altenburg as a Presiding Officer on the Guantanamo military commissions. The Washington Post reported: "...that Brownback and Altenburg h ...

and Naval Captain Keith J. Allred dismissed all charges against Guantanamo captives

Omar Khadr Omar Ahmed Said Khadr ( ar, عمر أحمد سعيد خضر; born September 19, 1986) is a Canadian citizen who at the age of 15 was detained by the United States at Guantanamo Bay for ten years, during which he pleaded guilty to the murder of U ...

and

Salim Ahmed Hamdan Salim Ahmed Hamdan () (born February 25, 1968) is a Yemeni man, captured during the invasion of Afghanistan, declared by the United States government to be an illegal enemy combatant and held as a detainee at Guantanamo Bay from 2002 to November ...

, on jurisdictional grounds. They ruled that the

Military Commissions Act of 2006 The Military Commissions Act of 2006, also known as HR-6166, was an Act of Congress signed by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006. The Act's stated purpose was "to authorize trial by military commission for violations of the law of ...

had only authorized the

Guantanamo military commission ThGuantanamo military commissionswere established by President George W. Bush – through a Military Order – on November 13, 2001, to try certain non-citizen terrorism suspects at the Guantanamo Bay prison. To date, there have been a total of e ...

s to charge captives who were classified as "

illegal enemy combatant An unlawful combatant, illegal combatant or unprivileged combatant/belligerent is a person who directly engages in armed conflict in violation of the laws of war and therefore is claimed not to be protected by the Geneva Conventions. The Internati ...

s", and since Khadr and Hamdan's Combatant Status Review Tribunals had only made the determination that they were "

enemy combatant Enemy combatant is a person who, either lawfully or unlawfully, engages in hostilities for the other side in an armed conflict. Usually enemy combatants are members of the armed forces of the state with which another state is at war. In the case ...

s", their military commissions lacked the jurisdiction to hear the charges.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Military Police: Enemy Prisoners Of War, Retained Personnel, Civilian Internees And Other Detainees Guantanamo Bay captives legal and administrative procedures United States military law United States Army publications

The authority of AR 190-8 Tribunals

Structure of AR-190-8 Tribunals and Combatant Status Review Tribunals compared

June 4, 2007 dismissal of charges against Guantanamo captives

See also

References