In the global war on terrorism, one of the largest issues -- and one particularly emphasized by the media -- is the issue of detainees and their treatment by other nations.
As terrorist threats continue to plague issues of international security, the question of whether law enforcement agencies or military units should take charge in regulating these increasing security concerns remains undecided.
Thursday, the University Law School held a forum to discuss these topics and other issues pertinent to the field of international relations today. University Law Prof. John Moore, who is also the director for national security law, moderated the forum, which included a panel of specialists speaking on the subject.
"We have some of the country's absolute top experts to look at some of the most difficult issues we face as a nation and dealing with the detainee issue," Moore said. "It's turned out to be one of the core problems in the world, so there are a number of different models for dealing with it. There is a criminal justice model, and there's a military model, and we clearly haven't gotten it right yet."
Moore said although such models have addressed the problems in the past, there is a continuing need to find better solutions.
"There have obviously been a series of mistakes made -- rather serious mistakes -- in dealing with detainees, and those are the things that we'd like to address for the future -- what are the better ways to think about this and solve these problems," he said.
The three panelists Moore invited were David Graham, M.E. "Spike" Bowman and Ruth Wedgwood. All of the panelists brought a unique perspective to the forum considering their extensive backgrounds.
David Graham, executive director for The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center, is considered one of the nation's leading figures in the creation of the field of operational law, according to Moore. Focusing on the state of the nation after Sept. 11, Graham highlighted the issues that have arisen since that day and the ways in which the nation must rethink its strategies of combating terrorism.
Spike Bowman, director of the Intelligence Issues of the FBI, is a retired Navy captain who served as head of international law at the Naval War College, a diplomat at the U.S. embassy in Rome and a chief of litigation for the United States Navy. Also addressing the importance of Sept. 11, Bowman focused his opening speech on the different expectations placed on the U.S. military in this conflict compared with past times of military engagement. According to Bowman, because the objectives and tactics are not clearly defined for the United States, the importance should not be placed on winning the war but on preventing a future terrorist attack and keeping society safe.
"We don't want to throw someone in jail for committing an act of terrorism -- we want to throw them in jail for organizing or planning an attack," Bowman said. "FBI agents are trained to protect the rights of American citizens, and the bottom line is that we cannot do our job unless we have the support of the American public."
Ruth Wedgwood serves on the Pentagon's defense policy board and the secretary of state's advisory committee on international law. She also serves as the American member of the United Nations Human Rights Commission. In her opening speech, Wedgwood highlighted the importance of making ethical decisions that uphold the basic human rights of individuals throughout the world. Citing sections of the Geneva Convention, she continued to come back to the necessary passages that pertain to current military and law enforcement policies on an international scale.
Capitalizing on the diverse background knowledge of the three panelists, Moore said he hoped to provoke a thoughtful and informative discussion while giving equal weight to each of the panelist's speeches.
"This is not a blame-game panel," Moore said. "This is one looking to the future of what we can do to try to have a more appropriate focus on detainee issues that will work better and be more consistent with our national values and effective war fighting. It should be a very balanced forum, not a polarized night of issues."
To spark the forum, Moore brought up three fundamental points that he directed toward the panelists.
"The first is that in the past we have seen from time to time, sadly, that in war time our country has sometimes crossed the line in relation to our own fundamental values and protection of civil liberties and civil rights," Moore said. "A second issue is that we have learned through our own commitment to human rights that there is a very important principle in effective war fighting for democracy in that we must comply with the laws of war and human rights. The third critical factor is that protecting the American people against brutal terror attacks requires effective war fighting and effective application of the criminal justice system."
In response to the three points, the panelists spoke about the question of detainees and whether they should be regulated by a military or law enforcement agency. The panelists referred to incidents at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay as they drew on the Geneva Convention and its relevance in regulating international relations.
Later, audience members were given a chance to participate by posing their own questions or debating claims made by the panelists.
The breadth and expertise of the panelists attracted first-year Law student Mark Lentz, who said he decided to attend the forum based on his career interests and what he knew about the speakers' educational backgrounds.
"These issues have been my main area of academic interest, and I wrote my undergraduate thesis on the Guantanamo detentions," Lentz said. "I've heard two of the panelists speak before, but I wanted to hear in particular Spike Bowman to get the perspective of someone in the FBI on these issues."
Because of Moore's distinguished reputation, first-year Law student Ross Goldman said he knew it was an event to attend.
"Moore is a renowned figure in his field, and I wanted to attend an event he is organizing," Goldman said. "The field of national security is one of the fields I might get involved with."
Moore ended the night with positive words for the future and said he was pleased the forum was able to adequately cover such complicated yet important international issues.
"I've heard many, many of these panels discussing the issues," Moore said. "This is one of the most effective of any discussion I've heard anywhere. We were really just blessed to have these world-class experts exploring these fundamental issues"
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