Terror victims can attend tribunals, DoD says

[unhappycamper]

Terror victims can attend tribunals, DoD says
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Oct 22, 2008 5:43:38 EDT

The Pentagon is opening the prosecution of suspected enemy combatants jailed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to victims of terror attacks and their family members.

The visits, which will be limited to 10 observers at any given time due to limited visitor housing at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, could begin as early as next month, said Cmdr. J.D. Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman.

It will mark the first time that the tribunals have been opened to the public other than members of the media, nongovernmental organizations and military family members, he said.

“Terror attacks” includes the Sept. 11, 2001 strikes on the U.S., the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole off Yemen and the August 1998 attacks on two U.S. embassies in east Africa. At least seven of the 255 suspected enemy combatants currently held at Guantanamo Bay are accused of involvement in those attacks, Gordon said.

The next proceeding involving one of those suspected combatants, Gordon said, will be a Dec. 8 pretrial hearing for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, named by the 9/11 Commission as the “principle architect of the 9/11 attacks.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/10/military_guantanamo_families_102108w/%2e

[bluedeminredstate]

1. What is wrong with this sentence?

"'Terror attacks' includes the Sept. 11, 2001 strikes on the U.S., the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole off Yemen and the August 1998 attacks on two U.S. embassies in east Africa. At least seven of the 255 suspected enemy combatants currently held at Guantanamo Bay are accused of involvement in those attacks, Gordon said."


At least 7 of the 255 "enemy combatants" are suspects in all the various terror attacks. So what are the other 248 prisoners doing there? What crimes are they suspected of? This seems like an inefficient way to prosecute those responsible for attacking American interests.

What a clusterfuck this policy has been for our country. How do they (Chimpy et al) possibly think they can indefinitely keep these people without due process? We wouldn't have stood for this in this country or any other country in the days before Bush. Now we not only accept frontier justice, but torture as a byproduct.