[Vision2020] Detainees in Despair

[Paul Rumelhart]

Donovan Arnold wrote:

> Paul,
>
> 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?

How do you know that some random person is a soon-to-be suicide bomber?  
Do you lock up everybody in case they might choose that path some day?  
If you have evidence that proves that they are about to commit that 
crime then perhaps you would be justified in locking them up.  Suicide 
bombers are a special case no matter how you look at it anyway since 
they don't (by definition) survive their crimes.

>
> Where would you release these prisoners to? Back to their Middle 
> Eastern countries where they will be killed instantly, or would you 
> give these suspected terrorists that want to kill God hating 
> Westerners a safe home in Idaho or else where in the states?


My simple answer is that I have no idea.  It's a great point and I'm 
glad I'm not stuck making that decision.  But I don't have a lot of 
sympathy for the person who does have to make it since they are a member 
of a group that locked them up with little or no evidence in the first 
place.

>
> Isn't the real question their treatment while in our custody, not that 
> they are restricted from harming us or being harmed by others?

I think there are two questions.  The locking up of potential innocents, 
even if they have been labeled with the dreaded "terrorist" label, and 
their treatment as you mentioned above. 

It's hard to think of someone who is in Iraq or Afghanistan that is 
living with or around a group of suspected Al-Qaeda as being a 
"potential innocent" in today's world, but that makes it no less 
possible.  I fear abuses of power, personally, and I tend to think about 
how I would feel in such a situation.  Say I was visiting a friend in 
Iraq or Pakistan (remember, this is before 9/11) and I got mixed in with 
the wrong crowd through that friend and had trouble escaping them and 
was thrown in prison for years without a chance to prove my innocence.  
Would the military be justified in locking me up for years, let alone 
abusing me at the same time?

If they have evidence solid enough to act upon it, then they should have 
no trouble swaying a jury.  If they don't, then they have no right to 
lock them up - especially for years. 

>
> You also wrote:
>
> "Also, I could care less if someone cheers the events of 9/11, they're 
> welcome to their opinions."
>
> It is NOT their opinions but their actions that the government is 
> trying to prevent.

Should they cross the line from opinion to action, then they should be 
punished.  Simply thinking about a crime or cheering one shouldn't put 
you in jail. 

So far, most of the "terrorists" are over there.  How about when they 
single you out as one or myself?  What if the person you called about an 
ad in the paper is three or four degrees of separation away from a known 
terrorist according to the NSA and their list of phone calls they 
gathered?  Would they be justified in locking you up to stop you from 
detonating a suicide bomb?

Paul