Padmanabhan, Vijay - short clip - DetaineeIdentificationProblems-review

Download
- Rights
- Limited Re-Use
  CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
  More Rights Info
- Files (1)
- MP4
- Please be patient with media downloads. They are often large files.
Share

Embed Code
<iframe src='https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4445qx68?embed=true' height='500px' width='100%' frameborder='0' marginwidth='0' marginheight='0' scrolling='no' loading='lazy' allowfullscreen></iframe>
Permalink

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4445qx68
Skip to Item Info

Loading the media player...

Files for this Item

Transcript

Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.

-	I think that the administration may have	0:00
	been on solid ground in sort of generally deciding	0:01
	that this group of people	0:05
	are unlawful enemy combatants;	0:06
	because they don't fight for a state,	0:07
	they don't follow the laws and customs of war.	0:10
	They don't carry their arms openly.	0:12
	They engage in perfidy, they target civilians.	0:13
	They do things that we don't think	0:16
	of lawful combatants as doing, right?	0:17
	But,	0:20
	so I don't think that was the problem.	0:21
	I don't think it was that there was more process	0:23
	that was needed to distinguish	0:24
	between lawful and unlawful combatants.	0:25
	And the problem was,	0:27
	some were not combatants,	0:28
	and some were combatants.	0:30
	And so we had to figure out,	0:31
	who are the people here that actually took up arms,	0:32
	and were fighting, or organizing, financing for Al-Qaeda,	0:34
	whatever it was that these people were up to,	0:37
	and who were people	0:39
	who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.	0:40
	There's a greater risk of misidentification	0:42
	with respect to these people,	0:44
	one.	0:45
	And two, once we made the decision	0:46
	not to grant them POW status,	0:48
	which I think is legally defensible,	0:50
	but it has a pernicious policy effect,	0:52
	which is that these people aren't going to say,	0:54
	admit, "I'm a combatant."	0:57
	Now, traditionally part of the reason	0:58
	why there's no identification problem	1:00
	is because people say "I'm a combatant!"	1:02
	because they want to get the POW privilege	1:04
	and they don't want to be prosecuted	1:06
	for shooting on the battlefield.	1:08
	We're not giving these people POW privileges,	1:10
	their incentive to be honest	1:12
	about who they are is reduced.	1:14
	So everybody says "I was a farmer."	1:17
	"I was a sheep herder, I was..."	1:19
	You know, they're now all gonna say that, right?	1:20
	And so we have to have a process	1:22
	to be able to determine	1:24
	who was really the sheep herder,	1:25
	and who was really the soldier.	1:28
	And last thing I'll say is, you know,	1:30
	process is not perfect.	1:32
	You know, the government, during the Bush administration,	1:34
	we had our process in place.	1:36
-	And that process resulted in releasing people	1:38
	who turned out to be dangerous terrorists.	1:40
	Somebody blew himself-	1:42
	two people blow themselves up in a market in Mosul	1:43
	after being returned to Kuwait.	1:45
	An individual who got a very high position	1:48
	in Al-Qaeda, in Yemen,	1:50
	was subsequently, was involved in the cartridge bomber,	1:53
	cartridge printer bomber plot,	1:56
	was at Guantanamo Bay at one point.	2:00
	And federal courts have made mistakes as well.	2:02
	It's just, you know, it's a human process.	2:04
	So, there are going to be mistakes made,	2:06
	but there's no way of avoiding process.	2:08

Item Info

Title:

Padmanabhan, Vijay - short clip - DetaineeIdentificationProblems-review

Date:

April 14, 2012

Interviewer:

Honigsberg, Peter Jan

Interviewee:

Padmanabhan, Vijay

Role:

Government

Description:

This interview may include descriptions of violence.
State Dept. Chief Counsel
Vijay Padmanabhan, male, age 34, worked in the U.S. State Department (2003-2008) as lead counsel on law of war litigation, collaborated with the Justice Department on Supreme Court cases, and led an inter-agency policy coordination committee on U.S. detention policy in the conflict with al Qaida.
Description was provided by Witness to Guantanamo.

Subject:

United States

Format:

oral histories

Language:

English

Extent:

1:25:23

Digital Collection:

Witness to Guantanamo

Source Collection:

Witness to Guantanamo Video Collection, 2009-2017

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Rights Note:

Unless otherwise noted, copyright is held by Peter Hongisberg. Under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license, you are free to use and share these materials subject to the following conditions: You must attribute Peter Hongisberg as the rights holder. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. You may not distribute any modifications to the materials. For other uses, including commercial uses, please contact Rubenstein Library at http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/ask.

Identifier:

99398e7b10ecdc44cb0f6ff8b836fa44
witnesstoguantanamo
ark:/87924/r4445qx68
6c36cf6a-c5f9-4bc5-a739-099604c023d0

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4445qx68

Sponsor:

Sponsor this Digital Collection

Padmanabhan, Vijay - short clip - DetaineeIdentificationProblems-review

Transcript

Item Info

Human Rights Archive

More Info & Options