Applied Financial Coercion

02/10/2007

Paul Munnis


This issue of holding POW’s indefinitely and without charges being filed as described in the op-ed re-published piece “No Exit,” is deeply disturbing. As the piece points out, there is no end to a “War on Terrorism,” it can last indefinitely and thus these POW’s have been condemned to a life sentence without Court order or review.

The likelihood of Democrats being able to do much about this in the face of a presidential veto increases the scope of the problem.

There seems to be only one remedy and it resides in the wording of Military Appropriations Bills. In order to release funds to the Pentagon some conditions must be first applied. Among them is that the proper charging of POW’s must be done so that a Court determines their status and also determines if they should continue on in confinement. This not only for Guantanamo Bay but also for other prisons being operated by the US Government on any foreign shore.

In addition, those detained POW’s must be afforded the same conditions of care as applied to Geneva Convention POW’s.

Finally, a release date must be established for every detained prisoner.

Unless Congress uses the power of the purse to gain repair of injustice then this mess will continue on forever.