General Wesley Clark on Fox News Live
June 30, 2006
transcript by Reg NYC

Bill Hemmer: (talking about Detainees at Guantanamo Bay) What happens though, when you release them and where do they go. Wesley Clark's a Fox News analyst and former NATO Commander, also an Infantry Company Commander from the Vietnam War, Silver Star, Purple Heart recipient, Vietnam War. General, welcome here.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Thank you, Bill.

Bill Hemmer: You know, at least ten of these men have shown up back on the field of battle to be either recaptured or killed. There's not telling the other 200 who were released, where, where they are. What do you do?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I think that the, the choice is pretty clear. You can treat them as combatants, as prisoners of war. You don't have to release them. They can be held indefinitely, until this war is over, but if you treat them that way, then the prescription is you treat them in accordance with the Geneva Convention. So, you don't interrogate them. You allow them communications through the International Committee of the Red Cross, Red Crescent and so forth. Or you can put them on trial, but if you put them on trial, you've got to have evidence against them. What we've tried to create is some third way the the Supreme Court has said won't work. It doesn't mean these, all these people at Gitmo are going to be released, but something has to be done to deal with them.

Bill Hemmer: And, and you know these guys, during their interrogations, they're acting like they're goat herders, trying to trick the interrogators. That's their mission to get out of there.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, that's, that's more reason why the interrogations probably haven't produced very much, and they've caused a huge black eye for the United States. I'm in favor of turning the whole thing over to an international court. Let them be held internationally, and let them be held indefinitely.

Bill Hemmer: You think so, hunh? Where, where would you do that?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: You could do it in the Hague. You could do it in Germany. You could do it in any of these countries. These people are a threat to the whole world. I don't know why we want to have the US military responsible for them. That would be one thing if we were on a battle field like in the Philippines or, or in Afghanistan. We had to put them immediately under trial, but this is a long-term process. They should be handled under different procedures. The military doesn't need to do this. We need to get our allies into the boat with us. Let the allies worry about it.

Bill Hemmer: So, would, would you, would you take, would you take Congress out of the mix then, if that was your decision?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I think Congress can, can do whatever it needs to do and say what it needs to say, but really, this is a problem for the international community. It's not exclusively an American problem, and there's no advantage to us. We haven't gotten that much out of the interrogations. As, as you said, they're lying to us. So, why do we want the responsibility? Put it on the international community. We'll do our share.

Bill Hemmer: Thank you, General. Wesley Clark with me today. Good to have you.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Thank you.

Bill Hemmer: Alright.