Re: John Walker: What Charges, who'll try him.

[Gurth <Gurth@xxxxxxxxx>]

According to Jeff Pawlowski, on Tue, 04 Dec 2001 the word on the street was...

> If American citizens are prohibited by law from being
> in the employ of a foreign goverment in a combat
> role...

I'm not an American and not a lawyer, but I can take a stab at giving some 
answers...

> 1. Doesn't this guy apply, acting as an agent for the
> then Afghanistan government (the Taliban), even if we
> did not recognize that government.

That's a tricky question, and with possible political consequences. If the US 
brings this guy to trial for breaking that law, then they are effectively 
saying the Taliban was the official government of Afghanistan -- because if 
it wasn't, they couldn't try him because he didn't break the law. (Unless 
there's a law preventing US citizens from being members of any non-US armed 
organization.)

> 2. If he is tried, will he be tried by the US, or by
> the new Afghanistan government?  By the US?

He broke a US law, so he'd be tried in the US. To take a comparable example, 
in the US you can drive a car when you're 16, but here in Europe, the minimum 
age is 18; does that mean that every US citizen who's under 18 but has a 
driver's license gets to appear in court when they come to a European country?

> 3. If he is tried by the US, will he get a normal
> trial or will he get a military tribunal?

Ask Dubya...

> 5. Does the restrictions on "cruel and unusual
> punishment" apply to anyone tried in a US court or
> just to US citizens? 

I would assume to anyone tried in a US court -- unless you specifically have 
laws saying foreigners are to be treated differently from citizens, anyway.

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