In the case of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alternatives — indefinite incarceration without trial, or a military tribunal closed to the public followed by execution — are far more likely to inspire militant recruits.
On Sunday, Israel's Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon approved the use of administrative detention — indefinite incarceration without trial — for suspects in the killing of the infant Ali Saad Dawabsha and urged security services to use "all means at their disposal" to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Last Sunday, in response to the firebombing — a so-called "price-tag" attack committed as revenge for actions taken against settlers by the Israeli government — Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon approved the use of administrative detention orders, a form of indefinite incarceration without trial, against Jewish extremists.
Lord Nicholls said in his ruling: "Indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial is anathema in any country which observes the rule of law.
The resulting indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial was "the stuff of nightmares", Lord Scott said.Legal challenges aside, the government may struggle to get the new law through Parliament, especially the House of Lords, where Labour does not have a reliable majority.
To the uninitiated, it may seem incomprehensible that the majority of the 148 prisoners remaining at Guantánamo Bay have been cleared for release by the US government for years, yet continue to languish in indefinite imprisonment without charge or fair process.
