slesh wrote:
Ok, Ok, let me see if a get this straight. Sending a man that helped to plot and carry out an attack that killed 3000 + people out right and was and still is a part of an organization that has killed a U.N. estimated 24,000 + people globally to a public trial in New York City is not a good idea.
Ok, I'll make this a real easy constitutional and international law question. Since this individual represents no sitting government and was not acting as an agent of a recognized foreign military power, how do you go about charging this man with a crime and in what criminal system does he belong?
Should take alot of you sometime on this one, I spent 8 months at the Army War College in Carlisle, PA. This school trains high ranking officers on strategic leadership, mainly Lt. Col. and Col.
I was apart of the security detail there for 2 stints, each 4 months. My last one was in 07, this was my last assignment before discharge. This very subject was debated quite often. An officer of recent distinction hit on several points with regards to the Geneva Convention, the International War Crimes Court at the Hague and individual nations and their respective responsibilities internationally to hold those none government attached war criminals accountable.
The following had been agreed upon by every individual in this debate. There are 3 succint foundational questions that need be answered.
1. What is the appropriate label for an individual or organization that has no government or operates as a global organization independent of any boundries? To answer this you must break the question down into two components.
1a. Criminal - treating these individuals as criminals executing heinous crimes, if this were the case, who would claim jurisdiction, the nation the crime was committed or the nation the criminal is currently in?
1b. War Criminal/Enemy Combatant - the Supreme Court ruled in 2004 that Enemy Combatants have the right to have access to the American legal system. If they are held by the U.S., but what about the Geneva Convention and the International Court on War Crimes?
2. Under what entities jurisdiction do these criminals fall. See above. There has been created, a scenairio in which the United States has superceded the International law it had signed onto as a member and Honored in most conflicts. Here in creates a moral dilemma, not only in the U.S. but to its allies and all nations that have signed onto these rules.
3. What are the penalties afforded in the sentencing phase of any commission, court, panel or judicial tribunal that would suit the situation? Justice must be served, but the entity prusuing this closing portion of any prosecution must consider safety risks for the population at large, not just the population of the prosecuting nation, but those of their allies as well. Also, they must take into account the allies themselves and the impact it will have on direct relations (including submission into the war on terror) both in a short term tactical view as well as a long term strategic analysis.
I can tell you that there was never agreement in this debate accept on one subject, which in turn affected the answer to the other 2 points.
That was the following.
It is agreed upon by all parties, with no dissenting group or individual entity that the label to be placed on these (terrorists) individuals is that of a criminal.
Very interesting indeed.
Good read.
If we are going to keep our eye on the ball, this is the part that stands out most to me:
"There has been created, a scenairio in which the United States has superceded the International law it had signed onto as a member and Honored in most conflicts. Here in creates a moral dilemma, not only in the U.S. but to its allies and all nations that have signed onto these rules."
If there really is a "coalition of the willing", and we are truly banding together with the free countries of the world to fight terrorism universally, then I hope we are listening to and respecting their opinions in this matter as well. We have failed to do so in the past, and if Obama is being honest with us, he will in the future.