US/CUBA: The prisoners in Guantanamo will not be given prisoner of war status, President Bush yesterday decided. But the Administration failed to resolve the issue of the legal applicability of the Geneva Conventions to their detention when it was discussed at a meeting of Mr Bush's war cabinet, the National Security Council.
Mr Bush also told Afghanistan's interim leader, Mr Hamid Karzai, the US will not contribute to any enlarged UN-mandated peacekeeping force beyond the logistical and intelligence support it is currently giving.
But, in what he described as a "significant change in policy", he pledged to provide US support in creating and training a new Afghan police force and army. He also pledged a further $50 million in loans for small business projects, on top of the $297 million promised last week at the Tokyo donors' conference.
Mr Bush met Mr Karzai following the latter's formal re-opening of the Afghan Washington embassy. Both men later spoke to journalists in the White House Rose Garden, where the President pledged to maintain US engagement in Afghanistan's reconstruction and Mr Karzai thanked the US people for helping to liberate his country.
Afghanistan, which he described as "fiercely independent", "is a good partner, and will stay a good partner", Mr Karzai said.
Briefing journalists in the White House, the President's spokesman, Mr Ari Fleischer, said of Guantanamo that "the determination has been made that [the prisoners] are not and will not be considered POWs." But he insisted that "anyone in the custody of our military will always be treated humanely. That is the American way." He argued that the Guantanamo situation was unique. These prisoners were terrorists who had come from 30 countries to engage in terrorism. He said the conventions must be "interpreted in a modern light," now that the country was at war with terrorists.
But he refused to distinguish between foreign or al-Qaeda fighters and those of the Taliban who could be seen as more traditional soldiers defending their homeland. "The US never recognised the Taliban government," he said.
A new type of war required a new type of detention, Mr Fleischer said, but insisted the detainees would be allowed mail and food - but they would not, as required by the Geneva Conventions, receive stipends or advances on pay.
The continuing legal ambiguity about whether the US considers it has determined the status of the detainees under the terms of the Geneva Conventions or has simply decided they do not apply, allows the Administration to deflect international claims that it is repudiating a treaty. The convention provides that when the status of a detainee is unclear that determination should be made by a "competent tribunal".
The Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, is widely reported to believe the US should not be seen to breach the Geneva Conventions. Vice-President Dick Cheney and the White House legal counsel, Mr Al Gonzales, argue the conventions are not applicable.
Mr Fleischer said that Mr Bush is adamant that the US should not contribute to the enlargement of the British-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan. "The President's philosophy is that the United States should not be overly deployed in peacekeeping around the world. The purpose of the troops should be to fight wars," he said, alluding to Bush election pledges to that effect.
Appearing on NBC's Today show, Mr Karzai appealed for a broader mandate for the peacekeeping mission, which is currently confined to Kabul. "The people I've met over the past month ... almost all of them have asked me to ask the international security forces to go to the other parts of the country," he said.
And in a speech to Afghan-Americans on Sunday night in Georgetown University, he called on audience members to return to Afghanistan.
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