Preventive “Security” Detention: The New Conceptualization of Internment for Imperative Reasons of Security

This chapter explores how the US reconceptualized preventive detention, also termed security detention, commonly defined as the detention of persons based on the threats their activities pose or will pose to the security of a country. The chapter is divided into three sections. The first section examines how international humanitarian law defines the term “imperative reasons of security” as the key grounds for security detention in both international and non-international armed conflicts. The section shows how the US adopted a broad interpretation of this internment standard to justify the detention of civilians who did not pose a direct threat to US forces (e.g., civilians suspected of having information on insurgent groups; civilians conducting propaganda activities for insurgents; and civilians possessing weapons). The second section explores how US troops relied on various assumptions when determining which persons constituted present and future threats. The US forces, for example, recognized security threats in persons, usually military-aged males, who lived in an area known for insurgent activities; persons found at the location of an insurgent attack; and persons with a certain physical appearance and attire. This section shows how the lack of credible evidence in security threat determinations blurred the line between combatants and civilians in a way that proved detrimental for civilians. And, finally, the chapter examines several systemic flaws of the new security detention system (e.g., relying on excessively subjective judgments when making threat determinations; undermining the authority of local judicial systems; noncompliance with key principles of international humanitarian law).