Terrorists ahead of elderly Americans

As it should be. Those 40 detainees are the responsibility of the US government.

Just out of curiosity, why have these guys not yet been charged and sentenced yet? 20 years seems long not to even be tried....even for government standards.

 

but the other side is that since Guards come in contact with the prisoners......

 

There is a lot more than 40 people in Federal prisons

 

True. But we are talking apples and oranges.

You are talking about people who are being detained but have not been charged with a crime.

And these are foreign nationals being detained by the US government.

We can't even say "don't do the crime if you are not willing to do the time" recognizing the inherent hazards of the prison system because these guys are not yet criminals.

That is why I said they need to be charged and sentenced or released. 20 years is too long to detain without process.

 

And they are there for committing a crime. Those in Gitmo have been held without process for 20 years.

 

Two of the 40 have been convicted of a crime.

One person (a human being) was released last month after being held for 18 years. He was never charged with a crime.

Remember that 19 yr old German Muslim arrested in 2001 and turned over to the US? He was held at Gitmo, found innocent fairly early (in 2002) but not released until 2007.


And yes, we are responsible for their well being. There are only 40 people. When we hold people for 20 years without convicting them of a crime we need to at least care for their health.

 

NOt sure of details - but havent some who have been released from Gitmo turn around and started fighting against Americans once they got back to the Mid-East?

 

That is pushing it.

It would be different if these were enemy combatants, but we know not all are.

One example I gave was a 19 year old German who was taking a pilgrimage to mosques (he is Muslim, and his wife is Turkish). But he was a tourist detained in Syria and handed over to the US to be investigated. It only took a few months for him to be cleared of wrongdoing (by both the US and Germany).

He did not commit a crime, was not a soldier in a war, was never charged with anything. He was tortured by the US in 2001, cleared in 2002, yet we did not get around to releasing him from Gitmo until 2007.

That is just one example. Many more were shown to be innocent, while a lot were true war criminals.

If we are to consider ourselves to be in a war and those detainees prisioners of war, then for many cases the United States has been guilty of war crimes (kidnapping and torturing non-combative civilians) and individuals involved should face charges.