Letters to the Editor, July 2, 2005

Conflict Terminology: Enemy Combatant

(A continuation of the the discussion, which started in the Letters of June 30, 2005, below)

Yes, you have it as well as any of us can determine this gray area's applications. Basically it is used so as to make the prisoners "ghosts" invisible to the Red Cross, etc.

The part that is contention, in my opinion, in the original FDR designation, is that you are a RESIDENT of a foreign state at war with us. Two things come to mind. Was Afghanistan at war with us? And, does RESIDENT mean the U.S. citizen was residing there?

Otherwise, I don't see how it can be applied to U.S. citizens, such as Padilla and not the so-called first person we designated as the 20th hijacker. We must clarify residing. It is all arbitrary.

I do not see the explicit mention of U.S. citizens in the original wording. Therefore, I believe no matter how absurd the law is, U.S. citizens should not be included, although my opinion means nothing to those hidden away across the globe.

Preston Taran

Definition

As defined by President Franklin D Roosevelt's proclamation number 2561, this definition applied to

all persons who are subjects, citizens, or residents of any Nation at war with the United States or who give obedience to or act under the direction of any such Nation and who during time of war enter or attempt to enter the United States or any territory or possession thereof, through coastal or boundary defenses, and are charged with committing or attempting or preparing to commit sabotage, espionage, hostile or warlike acts, or violations of the law or war....

The power of the President to declare enemy combatants was not used until the aftermath of September 11, 2001. Once determined by the president to be an enemy combatant, persons may be held indefinitely and are subject to the jurisdiction of military tribunals. Appeals or privilege to access to civilian courts is only granted to enemy combatants with the approval of both the Attorney General and Secretary of Defense.

Although the power to declare enemy combatants was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1942, it is currently under review, and the future of this authority is unknown.

"It is the President of the United States who designates people as Enemy Combatants on information passed to him via the military or intelligence agencies. There is no right to appeal such a decision and no one is allowed to see the evidence for the designation. In effect it gives the President the power to indefinitely detain any US citizen without trial, charge or an explanation."

Conflict Terminology: Enemy Combatant

I think we should add enemy combatant to the terminology list. I do not think I can create the definitive definition at this point, since it is now employed against American citizens.

Preston Taran

Editor: I'd like to add it to the list as follows, unless you and readers want to change it. Waiting for your replies:

Enemy Combatant is a person decided and treated by the US President or military leaders as an enemy fighter, even if he/she is not a member of an army, like Gitmo inmates. The term also applies to US citizens, like Padilla. Once a person is classified as such, he/she is denied legal rights, including an attorney, due process, or a trial.

No Wounded Mentioned in Bush's Speech

I am surprised that not even the most critical have apparently noticed that in President Bush's reference to the troops and his desperate plug for recruiting, he failed to mention anything about the thousands of wounded soldiers.

I guess this would have soured his call for enlistment. Evidently death in battle is always much more sellable and acceptable than is being maimed for life, which is actually over ten times more likely than death for soldiers these days in IRAQ.

Paul Caruso

A Promise To Keep

Dear editor at aljazeerah,

Thank you for this website. It eases my aching heart a little, to see at last, you giving, the suffering and tortured people in today's world of global injustice, a possibility to be heard and their anxieties to be seen in pictures, which can no man with good heart, leave without a trace.

But even though, many of my brothers cannot bare the truth. The burden of knowing is too great for them, so they think that they can escape into activities called "entertainment" of all kind.

I am born German and have lived in many places of this world. I remember during a moment of deep despair, my fiancé was very ill, on my way home (in Indonesia), I saw the neon illuminated word, Allah, shining in the night sky against a myriad of stars, on top of a local mosque and I made a vow, that if He would help now, that I would always act according to His will.

My fiancé got well and we married, she is Muslim, so technically I should be too, but practically, I have to confess, I don't observe all the laws a Muslim should. But I don't forget the promise I made and try to be honest, rightful in my judgments, according to the law of Allah, as much as I can, never forgetting what he has done for us.

I am an artist and my financial means are not great, my life is also a constant struggle for paying the next rent. That was not always like that, but money has become much less of a motivation for my work than it used to be. I even regard it sometimes as a source of evil, for it corrupts people. Nevertheless I will still try to help your cause wherever and whenever I can, by defending every Muslim against false criticism, the Palestinian and the Iraqi peoples right and all others who cannot speak or defend themselves.

May your work and mission be blessed and successful,

regards,

Martin Koslowski

A DECENT RESPECT TO THE OPINIONS OF MANKIND

This lofty phrase, lifted from our country’s most hallowed document, the Declaration of Independence, has been the touchstone of our foreign policy for over 200 years. Now, on the eve of another Fourth Of July celebration a sober reflection on the course of events over the past five years has shown how abysmally this administration has defiled and corrupted this noble concept.

Never before has this country been so universally despised and vilified as we continue to ride roughshod over world opinion with an arrogance born of ignorance.

President Bush, in the runup to the September 11th tragedy early on, showed his contempt for the opinions of mankind by his refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. Then followed a series of , in your face actions, including the revival of the Star Wars program, our unremitting support of Sharon in his quest to demolish the Palestinian State, and his unrelenting invective against the United Nations.

Granted that we garnered unmitigated support and sympathy from all nations of the world following the disaster of 9/11 and world opinion was for the most part staunchly behind us in our pursuit of Osama Bin Laden and the war in Afghanistan. Alas this outpouring of good will was precipitously squandered as we bypassed the United Nations scorned the good advice of those who disagreed and with reckless abandon invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq.

And so on this Fourth of July our once proud image has been disgracefully tarnished and we have become a pariah nation without direction or purpose. But at least our president has accrued the maximum benefit for who can forget his immortal words following the disaster of 9/11 as he chortled , “Lucky me I hit the trifecta!”

Don Speakman, Bahama, N.C., USA

Cost of Bush's war in Iraq

There's been a lot of reckoning about the cost of Bush's war in Iraq. That's right, as of two days ago, when the public withdrew support for Mr. Bush's war. More than 50% of the population says that it was Mr. Bush who provoked Saddam into war. More than 50% of the population do not support him.

When reckoning the cost of the US war in Iraq, we count 1,700 US killed in action, more than 25,000 Iraqi civilians killed, and a cost to US taxpayers of something to the tune of $200 Billion. But there are more costs people don't consider, especially the American people.

But there are some other costs. Ireland pays 10,000 Euros a day for military overflights. Ireland has paid grandly for the US use of Shannon Airport for its illegal CIA flights -- in complete violation of our neutrality.

The US has cost Ireland plenty, sending its uniformed soldiers on holidays in County Clare in complete violation of our neutrality. Ireland has paid and paid. 10 Million Euro over the past five years for military overflights. That's right FIVE years. How can that be?

We were told the war started in March 2003. Maybe it's time to go over the books again. Maybe there's more information to come from an island nation of 5 million souls who have watched in horror as their country was used to facilitate George Bush's war.

Grace Reid, Ireland.

A Warning to Parents and Teachers of International Exchange Students Who Plan to Come to the USA

To my left, I see a stack of handwritten letters from exchange students eager to come to the United States of America for their very first time anxious to experience American culture.

Sadly, to my right, I see handwritten letters from previous exchange students who have already returned home. All have experienced some form of abuse and neglect during their stay in the USA.

I have a letter from a retired parole officer, who, while supervising sex offenders, learned of five instances where sex offenders gained access to new child victims by becoming hosts of foreign students. One was convicted of molesting a 16 year-old Japanese girl.

I found myself wondering how the letters to my left by students full of innocence, anticipation and hope, ended up being letters of heartache nearly impossible for me to read. This occurs to these precious kids in the very country in which I live. It will continue to happen if the US Department of State does not raise their standards and require student exchange organizations to perform mandatory background checks of host families and publish child protection policies and guidelines.

In Northern California, the student exchange organization Student of the World Invitation to Friendship and Travel (SWIFT) made headlines in June 4, 2005 Inside Bay Area Newspaper. “Exchange students in dire need of homes – Host families still have not been found for 150 teens bound for Bay Area.”

Students will be arriving in eleven short days. Per my recent conversation with Jessica of SWIFT, she needs “well over one hundred homes.”

This article stresses that host families “do not need to provide a separate guest room” for the students. As a former Representative with the Center for Cultural Interchange, I came to learn of two Korean boys found sleeping in cots in their host mother’s garage.

“Exchange students still need homes” appeared in the News 8 Austin Newspaper June 7, 2005. Marilyn Bretherick of International Student Exchange (ISE) is looking for homes for 71 students for this coming school year.

“I’m really surprised I’m not finding homes for them,” Hagewood with Program of Academic Exchange (PAX) said. “I’ll put them anywhere.”

John Hishmeh of the Counsil for Standards on International Educational Travel (CSIET) worries about the financial toll that mandatory background checks would make on the industry’s smaller players. Yet as their tax files via the Internet show, these are multi-million dollar agencies.

My worry is that the stack of letters to my right will continue to grow. I fear the next set of headlines will be those telling the accounts of exchange students sexually abused by their hosts. I have a stack of those headlines, too.

Parents and teachers, please do not become involved with agencies that do not check out host families or produce child protection guidelines. Share your concerns directly with HawkinsKS@state.gov Department of State or JHishmeh@csiet.org CSIET .

Sincerely yours,

Danielle Grijalva, Oceanside, CA 92056 760-414-1314

DGrijalva@cox.net

Note: If you wish to check the authenticity of this letter please contact Professor Freda Briggs 08 8337 4102 who was the first to take up the cause of Australian students abused by hosts and/or their sons on Rotary and Southern Cross student exchanges (via ABC radio and Stateline SA).