ffs: Guantanamo suicides 'acts of war'

[AtW]

What would they do with the detainees, immediately?

Fingerprint them, take DNA samples etc and then return them back to where they were found: every time someone get killed in fire fight with coalition forces check their details against this database, if ex-XRay guys turn up killed in action this could be good justification to their prior detention.

[Board Game Geek]

Gitmo definitely has been an almighty mess right from the word go.

Speaking to a US Serviceman, there is definitely a growing feeling that the camp, which was intended to be a place of incarceration and to meet Human Rights requirements, has now given enough rope to hang the whole administration.

There is also a growing feeling, that in the future, arrested terrorists will "not be newsworthy" and can then safely be dealt with without the intense media scrutiny.

I asked him what he meant, and he said, "Everyone knows that dirty washing has to be done. They would just prefer that it happened without their knowledge. Leave John Doe to his MTV and MacDonalds, while the real men get the job done, quietly and discreetly and save the world from itself."

Isn't this the policy the UK adopted at the height of the Empire ? A damned fine Diplomatic Service in the public eye, but a completely ruthless Secret Service to deal with our nation's enemies ? I see to recall this approach worked very well.

Perhaps that is what is needed...a return to proper intelligence-led espionage. Though dropping a few nukes did yield considerable success for the Yanks in 1945.

[stackpole]

Fingerprint them, take DNA samples etc and then return them back to where they were found: every time someone get killed in fire fight with coalition forces check their details against this database, if ex-XRay guys turn up killed in action this could be good justification to their prior detention.

That doesn't help people subsequently killed by ex-detainees. When that happens, the public will ask why these people were freed to carry on killing, which might be worse publicity than they have got now.

Another thing, if ex-detainees are not killed in action, they could still be active terrorists but we may never know.

[Mailman]

Fingerprint them, take DNA samples etc and then return them back to where they were found: every time someone get killed in fire fight with coalition forces check their details against this database, if ex-XRay guys turn up killed in action this could be good justification to their prior detention.

Ah bless, how naive

You think these guys are all there by accident? What planet did you wake up on pal?

Mailman

[ALM]

Ah bless, how naive

You think these guys are all there by accident? What planet did you wake up on pal?

Mailman

If there is good cause for them to be there why not have the prisoners tried in a court?

[Fungus]

Ah bless, how naive

You think these guys are all there by accident? What planet did you wake up on pal?

Mailman

The Afghan forces loyal to the US were paid bounties for Al Qaida operatives. Is it any surprise that some are innocent?

What concerns me is that the US basically went on a fishing trip. They knew that they could round up anyone who aroused suspicions, cart them off to a camp, and then torture them. If they were innocent, well no harm done. There's no come back and they can just release them. If they were not innocent, then whoppee, they get useful intelligence. So for the US forces it's a win win situation.

And we've seen how certain the US was that Iraq had WMD. Seems their intelligence services are not always right.

That's why the detainees should have had legal representation and a fair trial.

[Fungus]

If there is good cause for them to be there why not have the prisoners tried in a court?

What amazes me is that one of the people who hung himself was due for release and yet is listed as an Al Qaida operative. Am I missing something here? If he was an Al Qaida operative, then he should be tried and incarcerated for 10 years or more. If he isn't then let him go. The fact that they did not try him indicates that they have no evidence. And we know how often courts get it wrong. Quite a few people hung for murder have subsequently been shown to have been innocent. So I don't see why US military intelligence can be any more accurate.

[Lucifer Box]

The reason he hung himself was because he was due to be released. He loves it in Camp X-Ray so much he couldn't bear to leave.

Rear Admiral Harry Harris
Commander, Guantanamo Bay.

[zathras]

What would they do with the detainees, immediately?

Those in Camp X-Ray do not have to be charged or found guilty of anything so frankly it does not matter.

The trouble with this camp is that it inhabits some legal limbo where the normal rules of the liberal West seem not to exist.

Incarcerated without Charge, no reference to Habeus Corpus and it seems they are not War Criminals so the normal rules of the Geneva Convention are ignored.

Given that terrorism is the promotion of political change by violent means as an advertisement for the benefits of a liberal western democracy over the theocracies more prevelent in the arab world it fails miserable.

If the US had the power of it's convictions it would have made these people prisoners of war and treated them with dignity and respect.

That it has since emerged that one of the detainees was due to be released (and therefore the need for their incarceration was no longer valid) it shows that the person who described this as 'an act of war' is an idiot of the highest order.

[AtW]

That doesn't help people subsequently killed by ex-detainees.

And who would they kill in Iraq and Afganistan? People are dieing there in scores every day in big numbers, heck 400 detainees in XRay could not possibly make matters any worse.

When that happens, the public will ask why these people were freed to carry on killing, which might be worse publicity than they have got now.

This happens all the time with even convicted murders and these people are not convicted of anything.