Terrorists, Interrogations, and Attorneys

IMHO, these enemy combatants should be treated as such and have no communication with any civilian attorney. After this election is over perhaps the liberals can go back to neutral and pretend to help protect America instead of fighting against her.

 

False dilemma - how does taking away the rights of suspected terrorists protect the rights of US citizens?

 

Because some of the rights they want are things like viewing classified information. The kind of information that helped catch them. And their lawyers tend to be people who sympathise with their cause who can then distribute information back and forth between the group.

 

Hmm, I thought Americans considered it a very basic right to confront the evidence against them.

"We have evidence that proves you guilty, but neither you nor your lawyer can know what it is" - isn't that un-American? Isn't using secret evidence something we criticize other countries for?

How do we handle that sort of thing in mob or government corruption trials now?

 

These people are not criminals being tried for crimes. They are solders being held as combatents. It is unamerican, and they are not americans so it fits.

In a mob trial we generaly gather all evidence, arrest all suspects and put them on trial with the evidence. The evidence is made known once all the supspects in the case are arrested and when the DA is ready. Also the information is not a matter of national security. In otherwords no mob trial is going to reveal the identify of a spy or some technological advancement that nobody knows about.

NOW, here is where it gets sticky for me. What about Americans that go to the middle east to fight against America and are caught and held as combatants?

I dont know, on one hand I dont want them to have evidence that gives away security details that could put us in danger. On the other hand they are Americans and deserve to be treated as such (unlike combatents from other countrys).

I guess if it was my choice, I would try them for treason in an American court room first on the basis that they were fighting against their own country. If found guilty strip their citizenship and then treat them like other combatants. Or just charge them with treason and give them a long life sentence and forget the other charges.

 

BTW, do you think with gave captured NAZIs classified information, lawyers and court room trials in WW2 during the war.

 

All right, this one should get someone ready to fight for rights, but whose rights are more important to fight for?

A) the rights of the USA to protect the American people

B) the right of a suspected terrorist to be protected like an American citizen?

The only correct answer is (A). Anyone who answers (B) has lost touch with reality due to their political leanings.

Our country has become too soft. If we hope to win the war on terror, in general, we are going to have to grow some skin and get tough. We have got to stop being so very emtionally weak, otherwise we will lose the war, our freedoms, and maybe our lives.

 

==They have no rights. They are not American citizens, they are not soldiers being held as prisoners of war, they are not being protected by the United States government, they are terrorists. They should be tried by a military court and those who are found guilty should be executed. Those who are found not to have been directly involved in terrorist actions should be sent to their respective country of origin.

 

How do you know who they are or what they have done? Only something like 5% were captured on the battlefield; the rest were rounded up or turned in for the bounty.

Soldiers captured on the battlefields are POWs. But who is qualified to be considered a soldier/POW now under the Bush rules, since their commander-in-chief was captured and the old government overthrown?

Part of the problem is that neither we nor they are allowed to know what the actual charges, if any, are - not charges, not evidence. So for you to declare that they are guilty, well, so much for American ideals and the rule of law!

 

Soldiers wear uniforms and fight for countries. These are terrorists we call them combatants. They do not qualify as POWs and certenly do not fall under the rights an American citizen has.

Again do you think people captured during WW2 were given the same rights as american citizens are given in a criminal trial.

 

Another thing. If Bush decided that we were going to give these individuals the same rights as a American caught shoplifting and we let them out of captivity or gave them information. And one or more of them killed American citizens, you would be the first one posting about how Bush messed up and did not do what needed to be done to protect us.

 

Who cares? If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, & quacks like a duck, it's a duck. Also, where there's smoke, there is usually fire. Much ado about nothing, but unfortunately, it will be one of several weak links in the chain that ends up causing us to lose the so-called "war on terrorism"

 

If we lose this war, it will be the last one America loses.

 

Bingo. It's inevitable, though.

 

Isn't that up to God to decide?

I have no sympathy for a terrorist but I also do not pretend to know who deserves to breath or not. Like you said, it is GOD'S oxygen, not yours, so you don't get to decide the matter, nor do you get to voice such an ill thought out comment with impunity.

If they are convicted of a war crime, crime against humanity, or treason then they ought to suffer a just punishment for it, <personal attack deleted - LE>

 

Who is being held on what charges? People like that Canadian who was picked up at JFK aren't exactly combatants, are they?

What happened to people of Japanese descent here was wrong and apalling.

 

You're simply assuming that people are terrorists. You want to hold people, possibly torture them, without charges, without trial - I think that makes you the terrorist.