[Vision2020] Detainees in Despair

[Donovan Arnold]

"Long before a suicide bomber commits the crime of murder, he has
engaged in the crime of conspiracy, or providing material support to a
terrorist organization, or any number of crimes that don't require him
to have blown himself up in a public square."

Andreas,

Based on what do you make this bold claim? You don't think that terrorist commit these crimes on their own accord?
You don't think it is possible that we have enough to know they are planning something but not enough to get
a conviction?
You want the US to just let free all the suspected terrorists that wish death to the US?
Then when we have completed our 15 year public investigation, tipping off 
the terrorist organizations where we have infiltrated them, go arrest the ones we are
sure would receive a life sentence? Sounds like a
impractical idea in the prevention of a bomb going off in a major city.

Do you honestly believe that people being held by the United States were randomly
selected in a lottery?

Unfortunately, it is not possible, or practical to be able to give an individual trial for each
and every suspected person threatening to cause harm to the US. Nor can we ignore the real threat that
they pose to us and other Westerners. We don't have the luxury of giving a separate trial to every person
within a network dedicated to killing us. 

You seem to be living in a false reality. You forget that if we release these people they will kill people
without hesitation, providing that their own governments don't kill them first.

I do agree however, that the US government should be working hard to find out if any of these
people are not a threat to the US so they can move them to a safe place and restore their freedom. 


Best,

_DJA




  

Andreas Schou <ophite at gmail.com> wrote:  >  You wrote:
>
>  "If we have evidence of crimes we should be prosecuting them in a court of
> law. If
>  we don't, then we don't actually know that they are terrorists and they
>  should be set free."
>
>  So you want to wait until after a suicide bomber commits his crime before
> confining him?

Long before a suicide bomber commits the crime of murder, he has
engaged in the crime of conspiracy, or providing material support to a
terrorist organization, or any number of crimes that don't require him
to have blown himself up in a public square. If we cannot prove beyond
a reasonable doubt that someone is a suicide bomber, and try him in
court, we have no business locking him up.

The fact that I have to be telling another American that we have to
prove a crime before locking someone away in perpetuity is just
another example of how far toward authoritarianism the discourse has
shifted since 9/11.

-- ACS


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