Ted is right, camp Delta is a good idea.

It is such a good idea that it is really a pity that the British didn't think of it in 1945 - 1946 and establish an extra-territorial prison on Cyprus, outside the scope of British law, to hold for as long as possible, as many members of the Stern gang, the Irgun and Hannagah, and their supporters, by whatever definition you want to call them 'supporters'.

These people should have been held, as the detainees at Camp Delta are held, without charge and eventually tried by a standard defined by the same British Army that had two sargents hanged by Zionists in an orchard with booby traps set to kill those who cut them down.

And just when we were having a reasoned and adult discussion.....

If anything the continued existence of Guantanamo bay provides excellent propaganda for the jihadists, as we saw with the Koran incidents last year. Would some groups use its closure as propaganda? probably, but are the people arguing this point prepared to maintain what is surely a black spot on the legal and moral principals of western democracy to minimise is 'propaganda value' to the jihadists?

wouldnt that mean that it is the jihadists who are establishing the 'rules of engaement'? i wonder what sun tzu would have said about fighting a war on your enemies terms?

As has already been pointed out the value of gitmo as deterrence is highly questionable, as is the actual value of the facility itself. There may be some terrorists in there but then why the lack of convictions? Where are the captures of high level terrorists as a result of information? Perhaps the value of gitmo is not in its effectiveness as a prison, deterrent or intelligence gathering exercise but as a propaganda tool at home. gotta love seeing all those a-rabs in those funny orange suits, it’s a real hoot.

So we allow the continued use of torture and rendition courts so we don’t provide the other side with further ammunition about the use of torture and rendition? An extraordinary exercise in bad logic.

And if there are people in the us administration who think like lapkin, as it would seem there are, no wonder the whole exercise in the Middle East is turning into a cockup of mind-blowing proportions.

It seems to be better for a hundred innocent people to suffer than to let one guilty person go free.

For an example of what some of these evildoers have been charged with go here - http://www.reprieve.org.uk/casework.htm#guantanamo

We don't have to go and fight Iraq any more - we are becoming Iraq ourselves.

You attracted the right wing wackos like flies to rotting meat Ted. I'm not a Jihadist but one person who finds the existence of the Guantanamo torture camp abhorrent and anathema to a civilised society. The inmates should be charged,dealt with by a civilised judicial tribunal of international jurists and the infamous place closed permanently.

There is no choice in the matter.

To protect us, we have little choice. I dont want david hicks back in Australia if he ends up a sleeper cell. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and the greatest good for the greatest number should prevail.

You hang around dogs you get fleas, and unfortunately innocent or not if these people made the choice to associate with terrorists, they are indeed advocating them, and implicating themselves.

Get off the humanitarian band wagon, these people have been ill treated, some should be released, but at least they were not allowed in whilst they had their heads full of propoganda and Jihadist thought, and at least they will be too scared and paranoid to embark on what they could of if they flew under the radar.

Yet another transparent exercise by one of the Israel lobby's leading lights to muddy the waters by attempting to con us into believing that Palestinian resistance (including the immoral and futile tactic of suicide bombing directed at Israeli civilians) to Israeli occupation is one and the same as the global jihad of Al-Qaida. The aim: to distract us from Israel's dirty war in the Occupied Palestinian Territories so that "a movement that violates every tenet of international law", political Zionism, can get on with the business of liberating the Palestinians from the last remnants of land remaining to them.