Why should any country take them back? Let them stay in that jail thinking about what they've done to Yazidi and Shiite women.
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Since U N has sheltered millions of refugee victims of ISIS fighters in different countries, has now it to shelter their tormentors as well?. Which country would volunteer and risk to shelter and care for the ISIS fighters ? May be Amnesty International and some so called progressive media agencies offer their spare office spaces for the purpose?
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Why aren't they all executed? They'll eventually be released and be active terrorists.
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After the atrocities committed by these people, they should be tried with crimes against humanity and sentenced accordingly. Same as the Nuremberg trials after WWII.
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Mr. Savage's article is hard reading.
The ISIS members were beheading, burning, and dismembering innocent people in cages for God's sake.
Internally, in the U.S., these guys would be on death row.
On top of that, they were promoting their actions on the internet for all to see, including your children, readers.
We are the USA, I understand that, but why should the taxpayer keep these people housed and fed?
The agenda needs to change here.
The Times needs to reconsider it's position.
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These prisoners are evidence of a massive crime against humanity. Americans need to know, in detail, how much of our money was channeled to these people, aka, the 'rebels', who were imported into Syria by us and our allies, in the wasted and stupid effort to oust the Assad government. Many of them were well known to be al-Qaeda affiliates, yet billions were sent to them. As a result, Syria was ruined, millions made homeless or refugees, hundreds of thousands were killed, ancient historical sites and artifacts, pounded into dust. The ones who put this into motion are fully responsible and need to held to account. Who will do that?
7
Do we recall that it was george W bush who gave us ISIS by toppling Saddam Hussein for no good reason thereby destroying the Iraqi state which directly led to the creation of ISIS, (Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.)?
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What stroke me most about this article is that in this case to we let the brave Kurds down again. They are are most trustworthy ally in Syria and Iraq, did most of the fighting, men and women together, they behave humanly towards the men who killed their family members, but yet we allow them to be attacked by Iran and Russia backed Assad and Nato ally Turkey. And still we are unwilling to grant them their own independent homeland. We should ne very ashamed of ourselves.
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The SDF is, despite its name, no more than just another band of ragtag warlords and terrorists that the US government has established, trained funded and equipped with the intent to bring down Assad.
They are no better than IS or Al-Qaeda.
As Assad has pretty much won the civil war, the SDF is only a temporary army waiting to be destroyed to comply with the legitimate government whether you like it or not.
So the only thing the SDF can do with these inmates is to either hand them over to their countries of origin, or, in order win some goodwill with the legitimate government of Syria, hand them over to the Syrian government.
They will know what to do with them.
After all, on being a foreign enemy fighter is punishable by death.
As with most such crimes throughout history.
Not just in the region.
And these foreign fighters knew what to expect.
So why withhold from them.
Their reward is expected only after death anyway.
4
I see a lot of bloodthirsty comments. I understand the anger. But where is the rationality?
Have none of my fellow Americans leaving these comments ever heard of the Geneva Conventions? Do you have any idea what they are and why the exist?
They define the rights of prisoners and the USA has signed onto the Convention for a very simple reason, to protect OUR soldiers who may be captured by enemies. If we refuse to abide by the Conventions, then we open the door wide to the torture and murder of our own soldiers.
Yes, I know. ISIS would never hesitate to torture and murder. But it is not about ISIS' flaunting of international law giving us some kind of RIGHT to do the same. Not only do we NOT have that right. It would be self-destructive. We would be creating the conditions in our next conflict for our own soldiers to be tortured and murdered by any enemy, without consequence to them.
Is that what you really want? To place American soldiers in that kind of horrific situation?
We can't have it both ways. We can't engage in torture and murder and not expect to have it done to us.
The only solution is to treat them in accordance with international law ... AND ... make sure that they face the full force of justice if they were part of any war crimes committed by ISIS.
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There is no American citizen. The so-called American citizen is no longer American. I am as liberal as someone can be and I know that American citizenship is not a right, but a privilege. Once someone voluntarily decides to join a foreign army or militia and fight the U.S., he/she loses the citizenship.
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Many wrongs don't make one right. There is no good guy here. However, from a pure pragmatic level, why would any country want to take the murderers back to their own country, causing huge security headache?
From a legal perspective, if one chooses to play legalistic gymnastic, by choosing to fight for ISIS, these prisoners have in effect renounce their own citizenships, never mind many were kids got seduced by ISIS propaganda.
4
They should be given to the Syrian or Iraqi governments for interrogation first because these ISIS members not only were members in a bloody violent organization, they looted two of the oldest countries in the world. For example, Mar Ilian Early Christian library, or Mar Taqla in al-Musel Library, or the Museum of al-Raqqa. These thieves looted the area like a true invader with no remorse.
Remember these ISIS members gave themselves up to the Americans and their allies and not to the Iraqi of Pro Assad forces because they know that that Americans would listen to human right and other problems. Assad or the Iraqi Hashd Sha'abi are going to shoot them fast. They may ask them few questions to get some info, but their end is eminent.
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As ISIS Fighters Fill Prisons in Syria, Their Home Nations Look Away
This week in the Times, this article caught my attention because we finally get to see ISIS members being imprisoned by the Syrian Democratic Forces. This article interested me because I got to see how involved the US was by sending money so that these horrible people could remain locked away. I think the US should step in and transport these prisoners to Guantánamo so that they can be punished for all the crimes they've comitted. These men should not be released bck to the public as thy would just continue their terroristic ways and continue to inflict harm to others.
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@Dylan McBride - Not Guantanamo please.
The USA needs to be part of this, but on the sidelines, not in the center. These people committed their crimes in Kurdish controlled Syria. They need to be tried by the government in charge, the Kurds. They need to be imprisoned in the jurisdictions where they committed their crimes.
The USA and countries all over the world should offer to help the Kurds cover the cost of imprisoning these people, as a gesture of support to the Kurds and to help further legitimize their political authority by showing global acceptance of their role.
6
@Dylan McBride,
If those people are sent to Guantanamo, there'll be all kinds of bleeding hearts who'll scream about inhumane treatment while conveniently forgetting the inhumane treatment these individuals wreaked upon innocent people and upon their own prisoners.
I say the best thing is to leave them to the Iraqis to deal with; over there, they won't be costing the taxpayers of the US any money due to the hiring of one lawyer after another and the innocent until proved guilty law. They were in ISIS, beyond any doubt, so they are not innocent.
6
I believe in the rule of law above all else. If one of these creeps is American, then we have to take him back and charge him with the appropriate criminal offense.
Of course, if the folks over there want to execute him, too bad for him. Maybe these guys will have an unfortunate, but nonetheless fatal, accident.
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Why keep them alive, surely they would not have extended the same treatment if it was the other way. No quarter was sought and none was extended. These terrorists can not be released back into society.
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@sob - Certainly they should not be released back into society.
But there are international laws governing the treatment of prisoners of war (Geneva Conventions). If we don't abide by them then in future conflicts, OUR soldiers, American soldiers, OUR sons and daughters, will be facing torture and murder as prisoners.
And there will be NOTHING we can do about it because we will have become criminals ourselves through disobeying the laws of war we agreed to earlier.
3
Give them to Assad and he will execute them.
ISIS has brainwashed the terrorists with extreme Islamic ideology, making the vast majority unrecoverable and permanent terrorists for the rest of their lives.
We know this from the repatriation of Al Queda millitants to countries like Saudi Arabia who then went on to reoffend.
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If these men are prosecuted I very much doubt that a court will be able to bring them all a death sentence for the crimes against humanity of ISIS, I just don't know if there would be enough evidence for that, and we don't know how many of them are directly complicit.
So instead many will probably be incarcerated for life, and if they aren't subjected to permanent solitary confinement (a very grave torture) then we run the risk of these ex-fighters radicalizing other prisoners.
On the other hand, they cannot stay in Syria. Like the article says, a noose is slowing closing in on the Kurdish state and we don't know how long they can be imprisoned there without a risk of an escape.
Hopefully those in power can figure out a solution to this problem other than extra-judicial executions. The USA doesn't need another spot on its name.
5
Try them, excecute the worst, flog the rest, put them on a boat sans passports, escort the boat to international waters, and let them figure it out.
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@Tim - in short, defy the Geneva Conventions, the laws of war that we agreed to many decades ago, the laws that protect OUR soldiers.
Yes, I know. ISIS did gladly kill, torture, and disobey those laws. But that does not give us a license to behave like war criminals. Not only would we become criminals ourselves, we would be endangering our own soldiers, our own patriotic sons and daughters, because once we had made ourselves a pariah state we would have no recourse to international law to save Americans taken prisoner of war elsewhere.
1
Why would anyone take back a savage bloodthirsty jihadist? Why would anyone be concerned about how they are treated. Even NYT liberals commenting so far have not an iota of sympathy and they shouldn’t.
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@Andrew - one reason why some of us would be concerned about how they are treated is because of what it would mean about the treatment of our own soldiers in future conflicts.
There are laws regarding war and the rights of prisoners. If we break those laws then we lose the protections offered by them as well, for our own soldiers.
This is NOT a simple matter. Going with our gut emotions, the anger we feel towards the brutish ISIS terrorists, may in the end result in us shooting ourselves in the foot.
We need to be clear headed about this.
2
@Andrew NYT has traditionally demonstrated sympathy towards terrorists under the guise of "alternate opinion". The rise of Islamic terrorism in the west could be partly attributed to the liberal press that has sought to humanize a despicable lot.
1
why take them back? they volunteered to join a barbaric regime.
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Our Th. Jefferson said something to the effect that a tree of liberty is best refreshed with blood of patriots and traitors.
We need to shed blood of these traitors to save our freedom and way of life that they were doing their best to destroy.
We should turn a blind eye or give a tacit approval that after “trials” - all be hanged on the soil where they perpetrated unspeakable atrocities.
Trials in our courts or even the so called least bad choice of Guantanamo is a luxury - best not wasted on these animals.
20
@Neil In this case, most Western countries don't have the death penalty and many other countries have less harsh prison times than the United States.
For former American citizen's who joined ISIS, I'd revoke their citizenship based on joining this terrorist organization and committing crimes against humanity. If the Kurds don't want them, and they have to come back here, I'd lock them up for life and take away their children. Really, who can ever trust these people ever again? Who wants live next door to a terrorist, a wife of a terrorist, or children whose parents bought into joining terrorist cult that wantonly killed men, woman and children, committed mass rape and slavery all in the name of their harsh religion? How can you ever determine if these people can be redeemed? You can't.
27
Folks throw around numbers and everyone accepts them. How is it possible that incarcerating someone at Guantanamo costs a hundred times what it would cost in a federal facility on the mainland? Are they fed Beluga caviar? Bedded in 5000 count silk threads which are thrown out every morning and replaced? Given massages by the masseuses for the celebrities who charge 500 dollars an hour? Are there ten security guards per prisoner 24/7?
The whole thing's a racket, and the NYT always repeats the figures without demanding a full accounting.
I say take them to the middle of the Atlantic and throw them overboard and let Allah sort them all out.
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