The trials were not supposed to be public, we don´t know what are the individual charges, and we don´t know how long the inmates shall be kept on the island of Cuba. A POW shall be set free when the fighting is over. A convicted criminal knows when he has served his time in prison. The Gitmo inmates are locked up for five years with no idea when or if they will be released. That´s the lack of transparency.
These individuals are neither Americans nor soldiers. Many have committed their crimes abroad.
Even a soldier who is a prisoner of war will not be set free until the war is over. Is the GWOT over?
Some have been set free. Some of those set free have been picked up again in Afghanistan and elsewhere. That’s not something that is advertised by the pundit is it?
A POW does not get a civilian court. The Nurnberg trails were no civilian court.
What you are talking about, is affording known terrorists privileges never afforded to even a POW in the past.
POW: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner_of_war
The US manual in circulation for the conduct of land warfare and treatment of prisoners which I have, was written in 1956 (FM 27-10) { https://atiam.train.army.mil/soldierPortal/atia/adlsc/view/public/9421-1/fm/27-10/toc.htm }. It is not an after the fact “redefining” of what a combatant is. These people in GITMO for the most part NEVER were defined nor fell under the definition of what one calls a “soldier” ANYWHERE.
Let me be clear to you Michael. In WWII these people would have all been hung by the Germans, Americans, Brits, or Russians. Today we worry about the psychological abuse of making them wear an orange uniform and if their diet is not in accordance with their religious demands. You have the Red Cross demanding that they have “privacy” in their prison.
GITMO is not about transparency. GITMO is a rallying point around which the anti-war crowd gathers.