There are people being held at Guantanamo Bay who were NOT captured on a battlefield holding weapons. In fact, there have been people held at Guantanamo Bay who were completely innocent.
You must wait until you get to the part where I say there are gray areas.
Interesting. And did the prisoners have a chance to prove their innocence?
No, getting caught on the battlefield holding a weapon pretty much eliminates the need for a trial, since the purpose of a trial is merely to establish guilt and innocence. Since that one fact makes them guilty, off the to tank and the cloth and the pitcher.
Terrorists deserve no friggin' mercy, none at all.
Who cares? This isn't a legal matter, it's a military matter.
They're prisoners not covered by the Geneva Convention. They decided to wage a war without a national state standing behind them, they get to enjoy the fruits of their choice.
Why does anyone care?
Did they have the right to appeal their detention?
They sure did. But instead of deserting, they chose to stay on the battlefield and engage the real soldiers of a real nation with a real government.
The purpose of appeals is to correct mistakes.
The mistake is the choice to allow the terrorist to be born.
For someone who claims to favor small government, you certainly don't have much of a problem with the government detaining people and doing horrible things to them, without so much as a trial.
OH! You're discussing "people". I'm discussing terrorists. Get back to me when you're on the same page I am.
Just in case you're unclear on this, the good guys are also not the people who hold innocent people for years on end without giving them a trial, and who torture prisoners who pose no immediate threat to anyone.
No one's been tortured.
Waterboarding isn't torture.
The knowledge those people would have withheld had a positive impact on preventing further acts of terrorism. Oh, and that knowledge...makes the interrogation subject guilty of conspiracy at a minimum.
As I stated, there are gray areas. Clearly the few people not caught on the battlefield should be treated slightly different. Maybe use Evian water for their interrogation, or something, that's a little softer than the typical tap water, right?
Of course, jeez, it's amazing this has to be said over and over and over, complicity has to be established before dismantling occurs. Duh. Why waste the resources on a dry well, right? But once they're determined to be terrorists, disassemble them, feed the pieces to the pigs, feed the pigs to the other inmates.
DON'T coddle terrorists. That species should never be placed on the any of the EPA's Endangered Friends of Anti-Americans lists.
