Any thoughts on why these 6 particular Gitmo detainees are being

[NoSheep]

brought forward NOW? The death penalty will silence them forever. What do they know?
I'm really suspicious of this.

[petgoat]

1. The "death penalty" gives them the opportunity to go into witness protection

and disappear forever.

Barbaric as it seems, I'm starting to think that if you're
going to execute somebody you should cut their heads off
in the public square. Then we know.

[Old and In the Way]

2. Will the alledged masterminds get their day in court?

Will they be competent to stand trial? Why now? Saddam was hanged within days of the Democrats taking Congress in 2007....this administration didn't want a Congressional investigation team talking to Saddam. I'm sure these people will need to be executed before this administration leaves office...dead men tell no tales.

[NoSheep]

3. That is what I suspect is happening: Hurry up and get rid of them.

:eyes:

[MinM]

5. Bush lays a Guantanamo trap for the next president

Attytood: Bush lays a Guantanamo trap for the next president

The likely unraveling of Guantanamo is Bush's worst nightmare. A legitimate criminal trial under American laws of jurisprudence would expose the worst of the Bush-Cheney torture regime, including waterboarding techniques, and have a result that nobody in this debate wants: Making it impossible to gain real justice against the 9/11 planners, because of inadmissable evidence.

A quick trial under military rules, and a speedy execution, is the only long-shot hope for Bush and Cheney for making the worst of the torture nightmare that they've created go away. That said, this new push for an execution is likely to rally more opinion around the world -- the death penalty has been abolished or is not used in most civilized nations -- against the United States; at the risk of appearing cynical, I doubt this decision would be announced if Mitt Romney and his famed "double Guantanamo" move or if Rudy Giuliani were still viable candidates.

But as today's articles note, it is unlikely, with appeals and the like, that any conviction and death penalty could be carried out as quickly as January. That lays the problem on the lap of the next president -- regardless of whether it's McCain, Clinton or Obama -- who would have to either affirm the military tribunals, or else declare on the first day of their presidency that one of their first officials acts will be to overturn a death sentence for a 9/11 mastermind.

That's a classic Rovian political trap if I ever saw one. And it's more proof that undoing the nightmare eight years of Bush and Cheney is going to be a lot more work than simply placing a right hand on the Bible.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

10. Bush and cheney will make sure that you will never know what the detainees know

[CJCRANE]

6. IIRC

Saddam was hanged two days before the elections in 06.

The same with the Bin Laden tape, that was about two days before the election in 04.

[Old and In the Way]

7. Actually, it was 12/30/06

So the Congressional results were known. The last thing this administration wanted was to have Saddam putting all of the historical facts on the table.

[CJCRANE]

8. Yes, you're right.

The court *verdict* and sentencing was announced two days before the 06 elections.



For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 5, 2006

President's Statement on the Saddam Hussein Verdict

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/11/20061105-1.html

[Old and In the Way]

9. Couldn't carry out that sentence quick enough.

No appeals process for him.

[CJCRANE]

4. It's an election year nt

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

11. Because they're tired of people talking about...

...how nobody's ever been arrested/charged with the crime(s) of 9-11.

It's time to shear off a few innocent heads in the name of justice.