Originally Posted by nmap
Obama reassured the nation that this “suspect” had been charged. Reassurance? The president should be saying: We have captured an enemy combatant (color added by respondent) — an illegal combatant under the laws of war: no uniform, direct attack on civilians — and now to prevent future attacks, he is being interrogated regarding information he may have about al-Qaeda in Yemen. No, Abdulmutallab should be given the status of POW.
Instead, Abdulmutallab is dispatched to some Detroit-area jail and immediately lawyered up. At which point — surprise! — he stops talking. He should be carted off to a POW Camp, overseen by the Red Cross afforded the protections of the GC and interned for the duration.
This absurdity renders hollow Obama’s declaration that “we will not rest until we find all who were involved.” Once we’ve given Abdulmutallab the right to remain silent, we have gratuitously forfeited our right to find out from him precisely who else was involved, namely those who trained, instructed, armed, and sent him. "Absurdity" is a dangerous word. It is just as absurd to criminalize everything anyone does that the USA does not like. It is absurd not to call an enemy who is arrayed against us an enemy, instead we call them criminals. For what purpose? So we could deny them the protections of the GC. Protections we have always demanded for ourselves on the world stage. The North Vietnamese had to coerce Americans who fell into their hands to "confess" in order to justify denial of POW status. And it was ridiculed around the world and only added to our Moral Ascendancy. Once you deem someone a criminal YOU have to afford, encourage and enforce the protections of our legal system. We tried to get around that by setting up prisons in foreign lands (to the point of hypocrisy is Cuba, former soviet Block countries and repressive Arab states).
This is all quite mad even in Obama’s terms. He sends 30,000 troops to fight terror overseas, yet if any terrorists come to attack us here, they are magically transformed from enemy into defendant. They were "magically" transformed from enemy a long time ago when we said we were fighting against a criminal conspiracy and changed the rules of war. If they are not dead, they have to be something! they should have been left POWs. POW's have rights that are much more limited -- mostly to protections of life. Criminals have protectios to life and liberty.
The logic is perverse. If we find Abdulmutallab in an al-Qaeda training camp in Yemen, where he is merely preparing for a terror attack, we snuff him out with a Predator — no judge, no jury, no qualms. But if we catch him in the United States in the very act of mass murder, he instantly acquires protection not just from execution by drone but even from interrogation. Exactly. Except we declared him a criminal, by definition he has rights. Because aren't we fighting the ? against terror to preserve our way of life?
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