Fogh, Lies and Videotapes?

Our Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen does not fancy a certain documentary film which was shown on Danish national television in December 2006.

And you can understand why. At least if you remember, that Denmark is at war in Iraq as well as in Afghanistan.

“The secret war” (Danish: “Den Hemmelige Krig”) is about the fact that during the war in Afghanistan in 2002, Denmark handed over prisoners to the US soldiers (at least on one occation — the 18th of March, 2002) even though USA would no longer respect the Geneva-convention, and possibly that the Danish Government, led by Fogh Rasmussen, did not reveal this to the parliament.

A memo [PDF] by Donald Rumsfeld, 19th of january, 2002, states that

[…] Al Qaeda and Taliban individuals under the control of the Department of Defence are not entitled to prisoner of war status for purposes of the Geneva Conventions of 1949.

This was known publically soon thereafter. On the 28th of January, 2002 in the New York Times:

Vice Pres Dick Cheney and Defense Sec Donald H Rumsfeld say war captives in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will not be designated as prisoners of war, regardless of what decision administration makes on Sec of State Colin Powell’s request for review of how Geneva Convention on captives’ rights might apply; […] Cheney says convention does not apply to captives because they are not conventional soldiers, but terrorists operating outside internationally accepted norms;

In this way, the movie rightly questions the basis for Denmarks participation in the so-called “war against terror” in Afghanistan.

Fogh Rasmussen flatly rejects an independent investigation of the events in Afghanistan in early 2002, and as to whether the Geneva conventions has been violated. On the other hand he ask for an investigation as to whether the Danish national television, DR, made any factual mistakes in the movie.

Double standards, anyone?