Posted on 01/24/2006 3:37:36 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
NEW US military rules mean that executions of condemned "war on terror" detainees could be carried out at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, the US Army said today.
The new rules authorise the army to set the location for executions "imposed by military courts-martial or military tribunals and authorized by the president of the United States."
"Enemy combattants could be affected by this regulation," said Sheldon Smith, a spokesman for the US Army.
Only 10 war-on-terror detainees have so far been charged and referred to special military commissions for trial, including Australian David Hicks.
The United States is not seeking the death penalty in any of those cases.
But the United States has not ruled out the death penalty for war-on-terror detainees, and the issue has long been a sore point for some US allies with nationals detained at Guantanamo.
The army said the changes in the regulations allow executions to be conducted at locations other than Fort Leavenworth, previously the only authorised site for military executions.
Currently, seven military inmates are on death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. No dates have been set for their execution.
The last time the military executed a prisoner was April 19, 1961, when it put to death John A. Bennet for rape and attempted murder.
The order signed January 17 by General Peter Schoomaker, the army chief of staff, said the changes were a "major revision" of the regulations, which apply to all the services, not just the army.
The regulations were last revised in 1999.
Death penalty opponents said the measure appeared to be a "technical adjustment."
"I don't think there is anything imminent but eventually there might be," said Richard Deiter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington.
"I suspect it is aimed at the military tribunals in Guantanamo. They don't want to bring people from Guantanamo and put them on US soil," he said.
Under the regulations, only the president has the power to approve and order an execution.
The secretary of the army then approves the location for the execution. The secretary must set a date for it within 60 days of the president's order.
If there is a stay of execution, it would be conducted 14 to 30 days after the stay is lifted.
The regulations stipulate that executions must be carried out by lethal injection administered by medical personnel or other persons who are qualified to administer intravenous injections.
Media interviews with the condemned prisoner are forbidden.
But at least two media representatives would be chosen from a pool to witness the execution, along with military officials, a chaplain, family members of the condemned and relatives of the victim.
Good, lets see if they get the job done in under 20-25 years.
Linem up, mowem down!
Works for me.
Dip the bullets in pig fat first.
About time we got serious. Excellent news.
And make sure they see the pig skins we will wrap them in as their burial shrouds.
Do it already...
Al Gore and Harry Reid should be test pilots!
Crap! They'll probably send them here to New Jersey!
Execute them all. Allah will know his own.
They should never have been rounded up and hauled to Gitmo, housed, doctored, fed halal, and given due process at the taxpayers expense. Shoulda been hosed down on capture. Saddam also.
Will this be a pay per view event?
I agree but better late then NEVER. Send them to Satan all ready. If they need a volunteer for the firing squad or the hangman I place my name at the top of the list.
Jeez, ya'll are bloodthirsty, maybe there'll be some
"Leakers" getting the axe too? I'd like that!!!
Heck, throw in a journalist or three and at least two
congressmen and I'd say we were making progress.
As someone famous once said. "Thus endeth the lesson!"
Any US allies that can't deal with the new rules, they can volunteer to keep these scum sucking detainees on there dime as long as they keep them locked up forever.
If not, ST*U
Maybe we should add some of the DEM senators to the internees. I think Hilldabeast, Murtha, Dean, Kennedy and Kerry would all be excellent canidates given their treasonous statements..
Dean and Murtha are not senators, so then they'd all get off because of a technicality.
Anytime anyone suggest I am too "blood thirsty" I close my eyes and remember watching Americans jump burning to their deaths from the Towers on 9-11. Blood thirsty? Not hardly. The world should marvel at GW Bush's restraint. They would be wise to remember a US General named Sherman and how war CAN be waged by us.
Fine then lets say dem party members are enemys of the state...
That, too!
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