For those who are "afraid" of a few alleged terrorists being brought to the mainland for trial:

[ddeclue]

In WWII, a war that was by no means a done deal until early 1945, we had over 425,000 prisoners of war interred in the Continental US in hundreds of camps across the US. 45 of the then 48 states had POW camps.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_POW_camps_in_the_United_States

The notion that we can't handle a few people in open trials is both cowardly AND un-American.

If these people are indeed war "criminals" then let them answer for their crimes in Federal Court - if not there, then they should be tried in the Hague but I think we should have the first crack at them since we have laws on the books that cover their crimes right here in the USA.

If they are merely "prisoners of war" and their acts are the result of a war then they need to be held in accordance with the Geneva Convention.

The real reason that the Republicans are screaming like banshees over a trial being held is that they don't want the truth to come out about how the Bush administration tortured these people to get them to confess to a non-existent link between al-Qaeda and Iraq so that they could start their own war.

If our parents and grandparents generation could fight a two front war in Europe AND the Pacific without having a nuclear weapons arsenal or overwhelming military superiority and STILL be able to manage 425,000 POW's here in the continental US, what the hell is the Republicans' excuse for all their fearmongering about 5 guys being tried in NYC?

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

"Counsel ought to be the very last thing that an accused person should want in a free country;... and... persons whose lives were at stake ought to have the counsel they prefer."

John Adams, on his decision to give legal support to the British soldiers accused in the Boston Massacre.

[indepat]

1. Is not the whole of the'puke mantra both cowardly and un-American just oozing

with mendacity, dripping with duplicity and disingenuousnes, and larded with hypocrisy? :P

[JonQ]

2. Not quite an exact comparison

we didn't attempt to try every axis POW for any sort of crimes. And unlike those POWs these guys aren't wearing uniforms or swearing allegiance to any defined nation-state. Seems like a small thing but legally it makes a huge difference. Consider, do we hold them until the war is over? If so, with no official nation or leadership to surrender wouldn't that potentially be forever?

Exact parallels are impossible to draw.