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June 01, 2005
Austin Bay cogently blasts Amnesty International
Austin Bay on his blog (which is well worth reading these days) attacks Amnesty International's idiotic labeling of Guantanamo Bay as a modern day Gulag. Columnist Byrne of the Chicago Tribune is the guy who wrote the first essay which puts paid to the idea that our prison at Gitmo is comparable to the Soviet Gulags.
Frankly speaking I support the imprisonment of members of Al Qaeda at Gimo for as long as we want. Remember that is it standard practice for states to kill enemy spies during wartime. No trial. No public hearings. Britian did exactly this when World War II started. The British intelligence service went to every known or suspected German agent and gave them a choice: work for us a "double agent" or we will kill you. Some loyal Nazi spies refused and were immediately executed. The rest were "turned" and did exactly what the British intelligence agency told them to do for the duration of the war. I assert that the British were morally and legally in the right when they did this.
Al Qaeda declared war on the United States. They have no nation, no army, no treaties with us. They acknowledge no rules of justice or convention. When they capture Americans they execute them and post the videos on their sympathetic web sites (remember Daniel Pearl?). We owe them nothing. We can do anything we want to members of Al Qaeda. So far we have treated the majority of the captured members of Al Qaeda better than they deserve. Some of the people we released from Gitmo have gone back to fighting us again. Why should we release them?
The bottom line is: the rules of war apply to people who (1) fight for a country which signs the rules of war and abide by its provisions (2) who wear uniforms which clearly distinguish them from civilians. Neither condition applies to Al Qaeda members. The rules of war simply do not apply to these people. The best analog is that of spies. No law, no treaty protects spies. No rule says we have to release spies after some time elapses. No rule says you can not kill spies during war time. Historically we have executed spies in the past, as has every other country in war.
The day that Al Qaeda surrenders, declares peace with the United States, and lays down its weapons, is the day that we will have to think about how much longer we will hold Al Qaeda members at Gitmo. That day hasn't come.
Posted by rakhier at June 1, 2005 09:53 AM