Re: Torture Torture and more torture
Might be instuctive to remember the last time the US help enemy combatants on US soil (Which of course does not apply, as Cuba is not US “soil” in the legal sense). Below is a capsule summary of the British and Hessian prisoners held after the Revolutionary War (which is of course before the Geneva Conventions). The captured troops were marched around the country, and leased to farmers to perform agricultural labor. An agreement was signed in 1777 that would have proscribed the return of the prisoners. The agreement essentially failed after England refused to document all of the names of the British officers who were to promise not to fight in North America. So essentially there was an agreement in place for the return of the prisoners, and a guarantee by the losing party that the prisoners would not return to combat. As a result of the agreement failure, the actual return of the prisoners did not start until 1781, four years AFTER the end of hostilites. In the meantime the prisoners were force marched all around the country performing labor. That is how prisoners were treated at approximately the same time the ** constitution ** was created.
The Convention Army (1777-1783) were the British and allied troops captured after the battle during the American Revolution (1777); the British under Burgoyne were defeated at the Battle of Saratoga in the American Revolutionary War
On October 17, 1777, British General John Burgoyne
British general in the American Revolution who captured Fort Ticonderoga but lost the battle of Saratoga in 1777 negotiated terms of surrender of his remaining force from the Saratoga Campaign with American General Horatio Gates
The terms were titled the Convention of Saratoga, and specified that the army would be sent back to Europe after giving a parole that they would not fight again in North America. A total of about 5,800 British Army, Hessian, and Canadian troops were sent on to Boston by Gates.
The legislative assembly composed of delegates from the rebel colonies who met during and after the American Revolution; they issued the Declaration of Independence and framed Articles of ConfederationContinental Congress ordered Burgoyne to provide a list and description of all officers to ensure that they wouldn’t return. When he refused, Congress revoked the terms of the Convention. In November of 1778 the Convention Army was marched south 700 miles to Charlottesville, Virginia, and held there until 1781. For several years they had an important economic impact on the Blue Ridge range of the Appalachians extending from Pennsylvania to northern Virginia.
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/C/Co/Convention_Army.htm