US Said to Mull Lifetime Terror-Suspect Detentions

Gothic Walrus

CAGiversary!
Feedback
6 (100%)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration is preparing plans for possible lifetime detention of suspected terrorists, including hundreds whom the government does not have enough evidence to charge in courts, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

Citing intelligence, defense and diplomatic officials, the newspaper said the Pentagon and the CIA had asked the White House to decide on a more permanent approach for those it would not set free or turn over to courts at home or abroad.

As part of a solution, the Defense Department, which holds 500 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, plans to ask the U.S. Congress for $25 million to build a 200-bed prison to hold detainees who are unlikely to ever go through a military tribunal for lack of evidence, defense officials told the newspaper.

The new prison, dubbed Camp 6, would allow inmates more comfort and freedom than they have now, and would be designed for prisoners the government believes have no more intelligence to share, The Post said.

"It would be modeled on a U.S. prison and would allow socializing among inmates," the paper said.

"Since global war on terror is a long-term effort, it makes sense for us to be looking at solutions for long-term problems," Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, was quoted as saying. "This has been evolutionary, but we are at a point in time where we have to say, 'How do you deal with them in the long term?"'

A Pentagon spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke of the Air Force, had no information on the reported plan.

The Post said the outcome of a review under way would also affect those expected to be captured in the course of future counterterrorism operations.

One proposal would transfer large numbers of Afghan, Saudi and Yemeni detainees from the U.S. military's Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention center into new U.S.-built prisons in their home countries, it said.

The prisons would be operated by those countries, but the State Department, where this idea originated, would ask them to abide by recognized human rights standards and would monitor compliance, a senior administration official was quoted as saying.

Link

I don't care how they're treated or how this is justified...lifetime imprisonment without proof is not acceptable. At all.
 
I love that thinking. The prisoners that they have actual evidence against get a trial and an actual sentence. The prisoners that they DON'T have any evidence for - well, we'll just lock them up for the rest of their lives and forget about them. In other words, its quite possible that the provable terrorists will get out before the 'maybe, possibly, we think, kinda' terrorists.

I honestly consider the entire Guantanamo prison thing to be treason against the US. This is EXACTLY the sort of shit that our founding fathers set out to prevent.
 
True or False

1. It's better to let 100 guilty men go free rather than put one innocent man in jail.

2. Innocent until proven guilty.

3. This will bite us in the ass later.
 
IMO To answer your questions MrBadExample:

1. True

2. True

3. True

Unfortunetly, especially with the first two, our nation does not recognize this 90% of the time. A good example is OJ or the Scott Peterson trial. Both of them were basically found guilty by the media long before they even went to trial.

The saddest part of all is the surprising amount of innocent people who have been executed in our nation. And by surprising I mean anything more than 1. Unfortunetly no one cares about these people because they typically fall into one minority category or another, such as black or poor. The fact that our government has excecuted people just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time makes me sick.
 
[quote name='RedvsBlue']The saddest part of all is the surprising amount of innocent people who have been executed in our nation. And by surprising I mean anything more than 1. Unfortunetly no one cares about these people because they typically fall into one minority category or another, such as black or poor. The fact that our government has excecuted people just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time makes me sick.[/quote]

That's why I can't support the death penalty. How many prisoners have been released from Death Row after DNA evidence proved they were not guilty? Besides I think life in prison without parole is much worse a punishment.
 
[quote name='MrBadExample']Besides I think life in prison without parole is much worse a punishment.[/quote]

I actually think life prison without parole is cruel and unusual. Just kill them if they're guilty of that heinous a crime.
 
[quote name='camoor'][quote name='MrBadExample']Besides I think life in prison without parole is much worse a punishment.[/quote]

I actually think life prison without parole is cruel and unusual. Just kill them if they're guilty of that heinous a crime.[/quote]

I have no problem keeping serial killers locked up for life. They have proven they don't play well with others and need to be segregated from the public. The state provides food, shelter and medical attention and it's cheaper than capital cases. Executing them just brings us closer to their level; violence begetting more violence.
 
Hey, don't worry -- If Rumsfeld stays in power, they'll all be dead in a year or two anyway...

todays-rumsfeld-army.jpg
 
[quote name='E-Z-B']Hey, don't worry -- If Rumsfeld stays in power, they'll all be dead in a year or two anyway...

todays-rumsfeld-army.jpg
[/quote]

Rule #1 of Iraqi Fight Club is you don't talk about Iraqi Fight Club! That goes for posting pictures as well.
 
[quote name='MrBadExample'][quote name='E-Z-B']Hey, don't worry -- If Rumsfeld stays in power, they'll all be dead in a year or two anyway...
[/quote]

Rule #1 of Iraqi Fight Club is you don't talk about Iraqi Fight Club! That goes for posting pictures as well.[/quote]

lol, it's funny -- they banned the use of digital cameras, which was a great idea, but for all the wrong reasons.
 
[quote name='MrBadExample'][quote name='camoor'][quote name='MrBadExample']Besides I think life in prison without parole is much worse a punishment.[/quote]

I actually think life prison without parole is cruel and unusual. Just kill them if they're guilty of that heinous a crime.[/quote]

I have no problem keeping serial killers locked up for life. They have proven they don't play well with others and need to be segregated from the public. The state provides food, shelter and medical attention and it's cheaper than capital cases. Executing them just brings us closer to their level; violence begetting more violence.[/quote]

Even if given all the necessities of life, prison is not a great place. Who are we helping when we keep heinous criminals locked up for life?

Greater society must foot an extra cost for housing, feeding, and guarding the prisoner. The result for society is the same, the prisoner never enters the civilian population again.

For the criminal himself, he is either killed right away or forced to live a substandard existence as an outcast. The options aren't great, and I don't think that I should be made to foot the bill of the latter. As for what the criminal deserves, as Immanuel Kant said:
It may also be pointed out that no one has ever heard of anyone condemned to death on account of murder who complained that he was getting too much punishment and therefore was being treated unjustly; everyone would laugh in his face if he were to make such a statement.
 
[quote name='MrBadExample']True or False

1. It's better to let 100 guilty men go free rather than put one innocent man in jail.

2. Innocent until proven guilty.

3. This will bite us in the ass later.[/quote]

True x3. This puts the U.S. in a very unfavorable light, not to mention scaring the shit out of people that actually think about it.
 
[quote name='"camoor"']Even if given all the necessities of life, prison is not a great place. Who are we helping when we keep heinous criminals locked up for life?

Greater society must foot an extra cost for housing, feeding, and guarding the prisoner. The result for society is the same, the prisoner never enters the civilian population again.

For the criminal himself, he is either killed right away or forced to live a substandard existence as an outcast. The options aren't great, and I don't think that I should be made to foot the bill of the latter.
A life sentence in prison is actually cheaper than the death penalty because of the greater court costs and mandatory appeal.

I'm not some hardass who wants all criminals locked away forever because many can be rehabilitated, but I do think society should be protected from the most violent offenders.
 
[quote name='"MrBadExample"'][quote name='"camoor"']Even if given all the necessities of life, prison is not a great place. Who are we helping when we keep heinous criminals locked up for life?

Greater society must foot an extra cost for housing, feeding, and guarding the prisoner. The result for society is the same, the prisoner never enters the civilian population again.

For the criminal himself, he is either killed right away or forced to live a substandard existence as an outcast. The options aren't great, and I don't think that I should be made to foot the bill of the latter.
A life sentence in prison is actually cheaper than the death penalty because of the greater court costs and mandatory appeal.

I'm not some hardass who wants all criminals locked away forever because many can be rehabilitated, but I do think society should be protected from the most violent offenders.

Yes, but the extra cost is due to the mandatory appeal law as much as anything else.

I know you're not advocating that more people get locked up forever, I thought we were just talking about the death penalty in a broader sense.

Whatever the case may be, locking a person away for life without giving them a fair trial is the kind of behavior that I expect from a third-world dictatorship, not the US.
 
[quote name='camoor']Yes, but the extra cost is due to the mandatory appeal law as much as anything else.

I know you're not advocating that more people get locked up forever, I thought we were just talking about the death penalty in a broader sense.

Whatever the case may be, locking a person away for life without giving them a fair trial is the kind of behavior that I expect from a third-world dictatorship, not the US.[/quote]

I agree absolutely. A fair trial is mandatory before any sentence is imposed.

And you were right, I was discussing the death penalty in a broader sense.
 
bread's done
Back
Top