1. B. Lewis,What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response(Oxford University Press: New York, 2002). For an account of the structuring of US policy since the Second World War, see W. I. Cohen,Empire Without Tears:America's Foreign Relations 1921–1933(Temple University Press: 1987); F. Costigliola,Awkward Dominion: American Political, Economic, and Cultural Relations with Europe,1919–1933(Cornell University Press: 1984).
2. H. P. Gasser, ‘Acts of Terror, “Terrorism” and International Humanitarian Law' (2002) 84International Review of the Red Cross547.
3. P. Ramsey,The Just War: Force and Political Responsibility(Charles Seribner's Sons: New York, 1968); M. Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars(Basic Books: New York, 1992) 51–74;M. Howard,The Laws of War: Constraints on Warfare in the Western World(Yale University Press: New Haven, CT, 1994); T. Hill, Jr, ‘Making Exceptions Without Abandoning The Principle: Or How a Kantian Might Think About Terrorism' in R. G. Frey and C. W. Morris (eds),Violence, Terrorism and Justice(Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1991) 196.
4. After the events of 11 September, allegations of abuse have come in the form of prisoner detention in Guantanomo and Abu Gharib. The Bush administration has claimed a right to detain without trial any member of the Al-Qaeda or the Taliban or other persons allegedly posing threats to national security who are regarded as enemy or unlawful combatants. According to the Bush administration, there should be no judicial review of the executive branch detention or if judicial review is obtained, the judiciary should completely or nearly completely defer to these determinations.
5. The idea that a state can detain prisoners of war amounts to a form of permissible internment and therefore the Third Geneva Convention deals specifically with what happens to the prisoners after hostilities have ceased. Article 118 of the Third Convention states that all prisoners of war shall be released and repatriated without delay after the cessation of active hostilities. There is no doubt that the prisoners in the Al Gharib prison constitute prisoners of war. A crucial question that arises, therefore, is as to when does hostility seize for the purposes of the release of such prisoners? Although the Convention does not provide an answer to this question, a preferred formula is that the duty to release is triggered if neither side expects a resumption of hostilities. Given that conventional military operations have come to an end in Kabul and a new government has been established, it would be difficult to argue that active hostilities against the Taliban have not ceased.