With the latest on the underwear bomber's upcoming indictment in Michigan and the upcoming trial of Sheik Mohamed in NYC, along with the furor over closing Guantanamo Bay, the raging debate is whether we should be treating these actions as acts of war or crimes.
I've struggled with it. If this is treated as a crime, all sorts of problems arise. How can we give the underwear bomber guy his Miranda rights; and then having the right to remain silent try to get him to talk about who else was, and still is ,involved in trying to kill us. Not your usual question to a criminal suspect. If we ever catch the masterminds, what kind of admissible evidence will have to convict them in a US court with full rights and procedures. Of course, if one of our drones simply kills them that doesn't appear to cause any legal problems. So we can kill these guys, but otherwise we need to treat them as criminals with full Constitution rights. See the problem here.
Why can't we treat them as prisoners of war and have the Geneva Convention govern? No need for a trial , we can interrogate within the rules of war; treat them humanely until the war ends. Well, how will we know when the war is over? We might not let them go for decades; but then who's problem is that. Also should they even be afforded the dignity of being soldiers of a sovereign government? Don't they have to be in uniform or get hung as spies?( I remember that from something). As to those who actually commit crimes against civilians and other non combatants , I assume there are procedures under the Geneva Convention for that. Maybe someone can enlighten me.
I could go on about both sides of the debate for a long time , but what I'm really advocating is the development of a 3rd alternative. These are more than just crimes ,but is this a conventional war as contemplated by the Geneva Convention? We need our greatest legal( politicians need not apply)minds to come up with something that both protects us and reaffirms the rule of law for situations like terrorism.
As always comments are welcome.
Eric
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