Bush should have executed Gitmo detainees

rawstory.com...

A former CIA officer has said it's ridiculous that the Bush administration didn't execute numerous prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, regardless of whether they have had a trial, when it had the chance.

"Many of those individuals that are there are enemy combatants and that's based on the Geneva Conventions and should be executed," said Gary Berntsen, who spent 20 years with the CIA, to Fox's Gretchen Carlson on the show, Fox & Friends. "It's ridiculous that the Bush administration, after seven years, didn't deal with many of those that we know are enemy combatants."

I'm not sure what to think about this situation. Did Bush make the right decision letting these men live? It would be interesting to know where these men will end up now that the facility has been closed. Hopefully they do not slip through the cracks.

You'd think an ex CIA guy would be familiar with Hamdan v. Rumsfeld

Just to say that they "should have been executed", and cite that that comes from the Geneva Convention is, to be frank, crassly stupid, given that the US Supreme Court ruled that each of the detainees had a right to trial.

Granted they may have been executed if they had been found guilty after a proper trial, but that is most certainly not what the guy said.

'FORMER' CIA Officer. Hmm .... wonder why he's a 'former' CIA officer.
I'd like to see this guys' resume and his work file. (won't happen, I know)
What has his job? Was he a guy 'in the know' or just a coffee gopher?
Gotta wonder if he talked like this while he was in the CIA.
Maybe that's why he's a 'former' CIA officer.

Originally posted by FlyersFan
'FORMER' CIA Officer. Hmm .... wonder why he's a 'former' CIA officer.
I'd like to see this guys' resume and his work file. (won't happen, I know)
What has his job? Was he a guy 'in the know' or just a coffee gopher?
Gotta wonder if he talked like this while he was in the CIA.
Maybe that's why he's a 'former' CIA officer.

From the article:

Berntsen, who commanded a team of CIA and special forces in Afghanistan in 2001, is the author of The Attack on bin Laden and Al-Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA's Key Field Commander. A Bush supporter, he sued the federal government to win the right to release his book, which detailed his experiences searching for Osama bin Laden in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan.

Judging by this quote he should have been in the know. He sued the federal government so they are probably not on the best of terms.


[edit on 3-3-2009 by TV_Nation]

I'm sure they considered the idea, and discarded it for one reason or another.

Something makes me think those reasons weren't "humanitarian", or respect for international law.

Guantanamo seems more like an interrogation-technique testing laboratory and deliberate icon of the arbitrary nature of American power in the War on Terror, than a facility designed to reasonably deal with an actual threat.

Originally posted by Ian McLean Something makes me think those reasons weren't "humanitarian", or respect for international law.

I think it was more a vision of those convicted Nazis dangling from the end of a rope that gave them pause. I mean they didn't figure they'd be accountable, either. Surprise!

Anyway, how do you define 'enemy combatant'. When you're there in the dirt doing Allah's work...as they are certain they are doing... a label affixed by an infidel doesn't mean much.