ATTORNEY General Eric Holder has taken the "not in my backyard" aspect of the Guantanamo prisoner issue squarely by the horns and announced that five detainees would be put on trial in federal court in New York City, not far from Ground Zero.
The five include the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. He was reportedly captured in Pakistan, transported to Afghanistan and then to Poland, whence he was finally relocated to the U.S. Naval Air Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to be waterboarded a reported 183 times under the direction of officials of the Bush administration.
Mr. Holder expressed confidence that the government's case against the five is solid enough to obtain convictions in a civilian court and said he planned to seek the death penalty for all five.
These trials will not be easy and will inevitably stretch out over time. They also will present security problems, given their high visibility and their venue.
Nevertheless, the United States could not be faithful to its own standards of justice and continue to hold these five and other prisoners at Guantanamo indefinitely, without releasing them or putting them on trial. Neither American law nor principles provide for indefinite detention without trial, no matter how vicious and evil the alleged perpetrators might be.
The Bush administration should have faced this problem decisively when the United States began capturing these people back in 2001. The captives should have been sorted by category, which would have enabled those who were legitimate prisoners of war to be put under the oversight of the International Committee of the Red Cross.Instead, the Bush administration put off dealing with the prisoners' disposition by holding some in Iraq at Abu Ghraib, in Afghanistan at Bagram Air Force Base, and at secret CIA-run prisons in Europe. Hundreds were sent to Guantanamo, to be held for years without being charged. Accusations of torture arose from each venue where prisoners were held.
Now the Obama Administration has undertaken the painful process of trying some of them, starting with five in civilian court and five before military tribunals. It will not be easy, but it is necessary that the trials take place to restore America's reputation as a country ruled by laws that do not imprison people without benefit of a trial, even when that trial will be difficult and painful.
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