A treaty with al Qaeda?

In a recent column for National Review Online, Andrew C. McCarthy pointedly asks: "Should we make a treaty with al Qaeda?" The question comes as Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales faces harsh criticism from Senate Democrats for his role in formulating the administration’s policy that denies Geneva Conventions’ protections to captured terrorists.

The author recounts how al Qaeda terrorists, "in addition to killing civilians in sneak attacks…also secrete themselves among their once and future victims. They wear no distinguishing insignia to segregate themselves as a militia. They use mosques and schools and hospitals to plan and store weaponry. They feign surrender and then open fire on unsuspecting coalition forces attempting the civilized act of detaining, rather than shooting, them. As for treatment of their own detainees, their practice ranges from execution-style homicide to beastly beheading – usually captured on film and circulated on the Internet to buck up the other savages while scaring the living hell out of everyone else."

Al Qaeda, McCarthy continues, "is not and, indeed, cannot be among Geneva’s high contracting parties. It is not a country." Furthermore, "The U.S. has for over two decades expressly rejected a treaty – the 1977 Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions – that would have vested terrorists with Geneva protections….if we’re going to have such a treaty with al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, it will have to be a new one."

Thus, McCarthy asks of Gonzales’ Senate critics, "so the folks back home know just where you stand: Do you favor a treaty with al Qaeda?"