Executing Gitmo Detainees Will Endanger America, Report Says

The Center For American Progress, a public policy think-tank based in D.C., has released a report that investigates the implications of the closure of Guantanamo Bay.

The report makes several recommendations, specifically that the closure deadline should be pushed back to July 2010 and that federal courts should be used for trial wherever possible.

Perhaps most importantly, the report argues that use of the death penalty in cases related to 9/11 would be counter productive:

It is in the strategic interests of the United States to deny these most heinous Al Qaeda terrorists what they want most: martyrdom. Al Qaeda will exploit an execution by the U.S. government as a significant propaganda victory, no matter how fair and legitimate the trial. Life imprisonment, however, would cause Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his co-conspirators to be forgotten like Ramzi Yousef and other terrorists currently rotting in obscurity in U.S. jails.

In January 2009 President Obama signed executive orders that proposed the base should be closed within the year. Attorney General Eric Holder has said that a decision about which detainees should be tried in military courts and which in civilian courts would be made by November 16.

For the full text of the report and an executive summery, please visit The Center For American Progress

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Comments

[bobo5]

Executing people without a trial would ruin America.

[gbrooks]

So we're contemplating execution?

Last I checked, these captive guys haven't had a trial, and neither has Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush, Rice, etc....

Thanks Obama!

[Hare]

Was Mandela forgotten?

[Rand]

In addition to being both wrong and stupid?

[bobo5]

Pitcairn Island needs some new blood.

[NeoconGal]

We didn't care about them when they were sold to us by bounty hunters, so why the concern now?

[Lori Bowles]

Life in prison is worse the execution, we can't make these people martyrs we have already tortured them which is a war crime.

[Eyepublius]

American taxpayers should not fund "life in prison" for any terrorist found guilty of terror/murder, period. The death penalty is justified.

If other terrorists call them Martyr, so what - we don't have to.

If we truly want justice, then the dealth penalty is the ONLY method of a final justice.

[ObamAtomic]

If we truly want justice,War Crimes must be investigated.

[CigarGod]

But first, we need to get rid of the evidence.....

[erewon]

They must be let go, from 30,000 feet without a parachute.

[duxguts]

Which ones is the report talking about regarding executions? The innocent ones, the guilty ones or all of them?

[Macready]

well said duxguts

[erewon]

I don't think a sentence life without possibility of parole would be just. With all that time on their hands all they're going to do is spread self-serving nonsense like Mumia Abu-Jamal.
John Mohammad solution is far better.

[wernerholm]

Give them a reality show in a forclosed mansion in Hollywood, that way we can all keep an eye on them.

[RightOnRightOnRightOn]

We should just apologize to them and let them go.

Hey, I know someone that’s expert at apologizing.

[mick7191]

Let them go in Texas, Wyoming, Mississippi, Alabama, and Alaska.

[Kuuba]

You know, if you did that, it would backfire on Al Qaeda, not a bad idea.
Apologizing for our arrogance certainly improved our image around the world.

If your parents didn't raise you to be humble and you don't understand, you're getting a lesson you should have years ago. Learn it.

[Fren]

I wouldn't necessarily agree with the apology thing ( i.e. apologizing to the detainees part). However, the parent comment was excellent.

[John Haversock]

If the goal is to punish convicted detainees, then by all means give them life. Put them in a bleak, barren location in solitary confinement. Break their spirit, crush their souls. Give them a long, utterly meaningless life to live.

[Mr-Mikey]

let them live with sarah?

[abouttime]

Seriously,... that use of the death penalty in ANY case related to any crime IS counter productive and promotes war and dispair rather than peace, happiness and justice.