And what do we do if 10 years down the road, some liberal idiot, i.e., Clinton, decides to "pardon" these people as a show of solidarity, i.e., FALN, or the need to win an election?
That's exactly right. That's why we need effective justice using military tribunals. The extermination of terrorists may not always be feasible and some terrorists will be apprehended rather than killed. These terrorists will go through our civil judicial system unless Congress declares war or passes a law permitting the use of Military tribunals against the terrorists who committed these atrocities.
"Congress should pass such an act - in part because terrorism is very different from other crime. For one thing, existing international laws prohibit such activities. As Crona and Richardson note, when terrorist acts of aggression target innocent civilians, they are not "legitimate acts of war under international law, but rather must be regarded as war crimes or crimes against humanity." The 1949 Geneva Conventions prohibit attacks on civilians. And the Geneva Protocol II expressly prohibits "acts of terrorism.""Nevertheless, we have so far treated terrorist as ordinary criminals - charging them with common law crimes, and give them all the protections of our criminal justice system. The 1993 World Trade Center attack, for example, led to indictments that were tried before a judge in the Southern District of New York.
"Granted, Congress has not declared war in authorizing President Bush "to use all necessary and appropriate force against" those involved with "the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001." But it would trivialize what was done to treat it as ordinary crime."