RESPONSE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA DATED OCTOBER 21, 2005 TO INQUIRY OF THE UNCHR SPECIAL RAPPORTEURS DATED AUGUST 8, 2005 PERTAINING TO DETAINEES AT GUANTANAMO BAY

摘要

It is important to recall the context of the Guantanamo detentions. The war against al-Qaida and its affiliates is a real (not a rhetorical) war, and the United States must fight it that way. On September 11, 2001, the United States was the victim of massive and brutal terrorist attacks carried out by 19 al-Qaida suicide attackers who hijacked and crashed four U.S. commercial jets with passengers on board, two into the World Trade Center towers in New York City, one into the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., and a fourth into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, leaving approximately 3000 innocent individuals dead or missing. The United Nations Security Council condemned the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 as a "threat to international peace and security" and recognized the "inherent right of individual and collective self-defence in accordance with the Charter." See U.N. Security Council Resolution 1368, U.N. Doc. No. S/RES/1368 (September 12, 2001); see also U.N. Security Council Resolution 1373, U.N. Doc. No. S/RES/1373 (September 28, 2002). The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Organization of American States (OAS) under the 1947 Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (Rio Treaty), and Australia under the ANZUS Treaty, similarly considered the terrorist attacks on the United States as an armed attack, justifying action in self-defense. See Statement of Australian Prime Minister on September 14, 2001 (Article IV of ANZUS applies to the 9/11 attacks); Statement of October 2, 2001 by NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson (9/11 attacks regarded as an action covered by Article 5 of the Washington treaty); OAS publication, United Against Terrorism, .