Treat terrorists like enemy combatants, not criminals

14 Sep 2010

Why Now?

In the week that New York remembered the attacks on the Twin Towers, iQ2 New York asked whether it is right to treat terrorists like enemy combatants, not criminals. This is just the sort of response to security threats that Lord Bingham was so worried about. But ends do sometimes justify means. Is it thanks to covert intelligence, water-boarding and other methods that would never produce allowable evidence in court that New York has been free of terrorist attacks since 9/11?

Event info:

In 2009 the US Justice Department announced that 9/11 plotter Khalid Shaikh Mohammed would be tried in New York City, setting off a firestorm of protests. Besides the cost and safety concerns, at issue are whether terrorists should be tried in criminal court or whether national security requires the use of military commissions. Likewise, issues like the closing of Guantanamo, the reading of Miranda rights, and enhanced interrogation all centre on the same question: How should the US treat captured alleged terrorists? In a war with no foreseeable end, whose actors are neither criminals nor soldiers; is it possible to keep America safe and still bring terrorists to justice.

Thank you to Intelligence Squared US for allowing us to use this video.