Gimpo Options

[THECHICKEN]

I was interested to see how many people think that Gitmo should be closed? In World War II we had over 450,000 germans, italians, and japanese (not so much) held indefinitely, which is easily legal under law of war. There were no trials or releases during the middle of the war. Yet people are working to have these people put to trial or released at gitmo.

Considering over 60 released prisoners have returned to fight against our soldiersSource , do you think its a wise decision to send more back to fight?

[THECHICKEN]

Ok so trials...

here is my question then. Should we have tried the 450,000 men we held as enemy combatants in WWII? If you try someone you are saying they are a criminal. We are currently holding these men as enemys from a WAR. You are condemning soldiers fighting thier enemy into criminals. The reprecocity of this could lead to U.S. soldiers being held as CRIMINALS in islamic countries and tried under those rules of law. And by your reasonings, that would be "fair"...

I think its insane to think these people NEED trials. They are Enemy Combatants in a war that are being detained until war is over. How is this wrong? Under rule of law its completely legal and makes sense.

Secondly, since these men are enemy combatants most of the evidence used to detain them is hearsay and classified. In a criminal TRIAL the government will be forced to give up all its sources (something you don't do while at war) to the prisoner in order to get convictions, as well as have A LOT of evidence thrown out because of hearsay and other due process issues. ... Effectively meaning these men GO FREE. Free to join war again, or walk our streets.

Which takes me to the next problem. 250 men have already been labeled as releasable and THIER OWN COUNTRIES WON'T TAKE THEM BACK. This means that even if we wish to release them back to thier own countries, they won't take them. Hell Germans who were all up in arms against gitmo would NOT take back a man BORN IN BERLIN when we tried to release him. So if we aren't able to even release them to their own countries what do we do with them? Its not legal to hold a civilian without charge (if not going by law of war... which allows for indefinite detention of enemy combatants) so we are required to release these men into the UNITED STATES. These are men that have actually said they still plan to kill americans (but we just don't want to hold them anymore).

So the question is that if you think these men need trials, then what do we do with them when we CAN'T convict them and can't send them back to their own countries?


Oh and to Woody saying we'll just move the enemy combatants to other places: thats not true if the HOUSE bill is accepted instead of the Senate bill on the matter. The house bill gives no allowance for holding enemy combatants under laws of armed conflict from gitmo.