User:George Swan/sandbox/Army Regulation 190-8 (tribunal)

This is a draft in User space, not yet ready to go to Citizendium's main space, and not meant to be cited. The {{subpages}} template is designed to be used within article clusters and their related pages.
It will not function on User pages.
Military Police: Enemy Prisoners of War, Retained Personnel, Civilian Internees and Other Detainees is the full title of a United States Department of Defense document usually referred to as AR 190-8, that lays out how the United States military should treat captives.

This document is notable as the Supreme Court of the United States advised the Department of Defense, in its ruling on Rasul v. Bush, that the Tribunals the DoD convened to review the status of the Guantánamo captives 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 the United States is obliged to convene a "competent tribunal" to determine the status of any captive "should any doubt arise" as to their proper status.

The Third Geneva Convention states that all captives must be accorded the protections of POW status until a competent tribunal convenes, and determines the captive does not qualify as a "lawful combatant"..

• AR-190-8 Tribunals are authorized to confirm that a captive is a lawful combatant, 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, who should be immediately released.
• AR-190-8 Tribunals are authorized to confirm that a captive is combatant who acted in a way that they should be stripped of the protections of Prisoner of War status. According to the Geneva Conventions, only captives who have been stripped of POW status, by a competent tribunal, can face charges for any actions they committed on the battlefield.

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

AR-190-8 Tribunal	Combatant Status Review Tribunal
Authorized to confirm that a captive is a lawful combatant. Authorized to determine that a captives is an innocent civilian. Authorized to determine that a combatant should be stripped of the protections of POW status, and can, subsequently, face war crime charges.	Authorized to confirm or dispute earlier, secret determinations that captives are "enemy combatants". Explicitly not authorized to determine whether captives qualify for the protections of POW status.
Three officers, presided by a field grade officer, make the determination, on the preponderance of the evidence. One of the officers should be a military lawyer.	Three officers, whose President is a field grade officer, make the determination, on the preponderance of the evidence.
Another officer, who does not share in the determination, support the officers making the determination. He or she collates the information the Tribunal bases its decision on.	Two officers, who do not share in the determination, support the officers making the determination. The Recorder collates the information the Tribunal bases its decision on. The Recorders were military lawyers. The Personal Representative meets with the captive: explains the Tribunal's procedures; explained that participation was voluntary goes over the unclassified allegations against the captive, which they would be learning, for the first time; tries to get the captive to share their account of the incidents recorded in the allegations. determines whether the captive wanted to attend, submit a written statement, or allow the Tribunal to convene without their participation; if the captive doesn't attend, or is disruptive, and is removed, it is the Personal Representative's responsibility to present the captive's version of events.

June 4 2007 dismissal of charges against Guantánamo captives

On June 4 2007 Colonel Peter Brownback and Naval Captain Keith J. Allred dismissed all charges against Guantanamo captives Omar Khadr and Salim Ahmed Hamdan, on jurisdictional grounds. They ruled that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 had only authorized the Guantanamo military commissions to charge captives who were classified as "illegal enemy combatants", and since Khadr and Hamdan's Combatant Status Review Tribunals had only made the determination that they were "enemy combatants", their military commissions lacked the jurisdiction to hear the charges.

See also

• Administrative Review Board
• OARDEC