In another move that clearly ignores the Constitution, the Pentagon released rules for the trials of terror suspects that include allowing hearsay and coerced testimony. Such evidence could not only convict people, it could send them to the death chamber. This comes after the US previously dismissed the Geneva Conventions, having held some individuals now for five years.
Nobody wants terrorists to go free, but the civilized world has adopted standards, and the US has signed onto those standards. It is outrageous that the Bush Administration has decided that they don't apply. Those captured in the midst of a conflict are prisoners of war. They cannot be tortured and they must be set free when the battle is done -- which means in these cases when Kabul and Baghdad fell to US forces. Only those who have committed war crimes -- or, as in the case of Saddam Hussein, crimes against humanity -- can be held longer and then they must be tried fairly by an international tribune.
Those are the rules of engagement and the US is a signatory to those rules. It is arrogant and hypocritical for our government and military to institute an entire set of guidelines outside of those set up by the four treaties known as the Geneva Conventions. The only system that should work outside of that is the criminal justice system. If someone violates laws on American soil then they are held accountable to that system, with a trial that respects the Constitution. If someone violates laws outside of the US, then they need to be held accountable according to that country's laws. There are no other options -- except tyranny.
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