This one might be a tough one AP, but I believe that if anyone can help me it will be you. Where can I find information about the “article 5 hearings” that happened during/after the first gulf war? Specifically, I am trying to find out if these trials were recorded in any way. Thanks, bd
ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Thanks for your faith in AP, but I’m unfortunately unable to engage in lengthy research projects! As I’m sure you did, I found references to the existence of the 1991 hearings (named after Article 5 of the Third Geneva Convention), but no evidence that anything had ever been published or released to the public. (See, for instance, http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/636/sc3.htm or http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/usa/pow-bck.htm ) My experience is that this sort of information is kept classified or at least unpublished, but I do suspect that some record of the hearings were kept. Once declassified, some government records are eventually filmed by commercial microfilm companies, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. I didn’t see any collections relating to the 1991 Persian Gulf War in the catalogs of several major micropublishers. If the records are no longer deemed sensitive for national security reasons, you may be able to retrieve them through the US Department of Defense Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Program http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/foi/