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Article: Bush Shifts Position on Detainees; Geneva Conventions to Cover Taliban, but Not Al Qaeda
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- February 8, 2002
- Author:
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President Bush reversed himself yesterday and declared that
captured combatants who fought for Afghanistan's Taliban regime will
be formally covered by the Geneva Conventions. But the president
refused to confer that status on detainees who are members of the al
Qaeda terrorist network.
Bush drew the distinction between the two groups on the grounds
that the nation of Afghanistan was a party to the Geneva Conventions,
while Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network never signed the global
accords, White House officials said.
Bush's decision will have no practical effect on the 186 prisoners
at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, leaving the day-to-
day conditions of their captivity ...