PLC1 you properly highlight the vast array of special circumstances here with these prisoners.
In reading some like Gen it's a not so cleaver play on... we can do whatever we want to with them. Which of course is incorrect. We should follow a fair guideline especially if the death penalty is on the table.
They built their "we can do anything we want" case by using a wild array of "are and are nots".
They aren't criminal mass murders because Bush called fighting terrorism a "WAR". We call the war on drugs a "WAR" but I don't seen many military tribunals for even drug cartel kingpins... it's Federal Court for them.
They aren't POW's because although we officially designated them the aforementioned other side in a "WAR" they don't wear officially licensed Reebok apparel uniforms it appears. But then if they're NOT POW'S then there is no basis to keep them without a trail until after the "WAR" ends.
So the Bush administration comes up with a designation which to them meant they can be TORTURED, waterboarded sometimes 138 times, black bagged and stood on a box with alligator clips stuck to them telling them they are wired to a bomb and if they move they'll blow up. Stripped naked and have dogs rip away at them... things like that. And as far any trial first it was to be none... then well maybe someday a military tribunal.
OK now we've sifted through all the Bush crap. Now let's actually do something constructive. President Obama wants to try some in federal court (I'm presuming the ones most likely to have done something to deserve the death penalty). This is a good thing. We've tried terrorists before without a problem and it shows the world that America doesn't put people to death without going through an open and fair process.
This is how this ends. And it needs to end. We try in Federal Court and when coonvicted give the death penalty to some and try the others in military trbunals for long prison sentences.
We even create some good jobs right here at home. We open some previously closed super max for them right here in the states. The terrorists will actually have less freedom than at GITMO and we extricate ourselves from what Bush/Cheney created as the poster child for American TORTURE.
God bless President Obama and God bless the United States of America for finally doing the right things.
In reading some like Gen it's a not so cleaver play on... we can do whatever we want to with them. Which of course is incorrect. We should follow a fair guideline especially if the death penalty is on the table.
They built their "we can do anything we want" case by using a wild array of "are and are nots".
They aren't criminal mass murders because Bush called fighting terrorism a "WAR". We call the war on drugs a "WAR" but I don't seen many military tribunals for even drug cartel kingpins... it's Federal Court for them.
They aren't POW's because although we officially designated them the aforementioned other side in a "WAR" they don't wear officially licensed Reebok apparel uniforms it appears. But then if they're NOT POW'S then there is no basis to keep them without a trail until after the "WAR" ends.
So the Bush administration comes up with a designation which to them meant they can be TORTURED, waterboarded sometimes 138 times, black bagged and stood on a box with alligator clips stuck to them telling them they are wired to a bomb and if they move they'll blow up. Stripped naked and have dogs rip away at them... things like that. And as far any trial first it was to be none... then well maybe someday a military tribunal.
OK now we've sifted through all the Bush crap. Now let's actually do something constructive. President Obama wants to try some in federal court (I'm presuming the ones most likely to have done something to deserve the death penalty). This is a good thing. We've tried terrorists before without a problem and it shows the world that America doesn't put people to death without going through an open and fair process.
This is how this ends. And it needs to end. We try in Federal Court and when coonvicted give the death penalty to some and try the others in military trbunals for long prison sentences.
We even create some good jobs right here at home. We open some previously closed super max for them right here in the states. The terrorists will actually have less freedom than at GITMO and we extricate ourselves from what Bush/Cheney created as the poster child for American TORTURE.
God bless President Obama and God bless the United States of America for finally doing the right things.