It is not hard to understand that Washington, D.C., is having trouble deciding what to do with terrorist when they cannot even decide on a definition of who is a terrorist and who or what is an enemy combatant.

The recent story in the New York Times says it all. The New York Times, March 29, 2010, “Obama Team Is Divided On Tactics Against Terrorism,” By Charlie Savage: “Senior lawyers in the Obama administration are deeply divided over some of the counterterrorism powers they inherited from former President George W. Bush, according to interviews and a review of legal briefs.”

When one member of the Administration says that men and women returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan could be dangerous – read potential domestic terrorist – what are the real bad guys?

According to the New York Times: “The discussions, which shaped classified court briefs filed this month, have centered on how broadly to define the types of terrorism suspects who may be detained without trials as wartime prisoners. The outcome of the yearlong debate could reverberate through national security policies, ranging from the number of people the United States ultimately detains to decisions about who may be lawfully selected for killing using drones.”

Unbelievable?

The Geneva Convention is very clear on spies, guerrillas, terrorist, etc.

Anyone carrying arms as a civilian or using civilians to hide behind have been considered terrorist or enemy combatants and subject to summary execution since Abraham Lincoln.

It cannot be that hard except for any and all who have never heard a shot fired in anger.

We need to send all Washington, D.C., lawyers to Afghanistan and accompany a Marine Corps platoon for one week of combat.

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Many political pundits continue to write about the Christmas Day bomber. 

I have seen no analysis of what Al Qaeda has learned from their experience.

In reality we dodged a very big bullet when the Al Qaeda trained Nigerian terrorist failed in his attempt to blow up a Northwest Airliner on Christmas Day as it approached the Detroit airport.

The terrorist group behind this attempt learned some things of great value to them:

1. They can still penetrate western airlines at will.

2. Their explosive detonating method needs to be improved.

3. The next means of using a body bomb device may require an internal method, i.e., inside the stomach or rectum. (This is doable and used regularly to smuggle narcotics into prisons, etc.)

4.  Choosing non-Muslim, non-Arab bombers is best.

5.  Rehearsal of airport entry areas is a must.

7. Watch lists can be circumvented with a simple letter change in a name.

8. Student visas are still good entry methods.

9. They can demand to be arrested by the local police and/or FBI and asked for “Mirandizing” and being read your rights, and ask for a lawyer.

10. Being given criminal charges (rather than being designated an enemy combatant) will get civilian courts not Guantanamo or returned home for trial.

 What have we learned?

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What is a home grown terrorist?

My first introduction to the question came from a briefing in the mid 1980s put on by the Army and a Ft Leavenworth briefing team called: Terrorist, Criminals and Crazies.

There is little doubt that the shootings at Ft Hood was the result of a terrorist act.

But, what about Timothy McVeigh and the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building. I would not class that as a terrorist act but it was certainly criminal and he had to be crazy.

Too many journalist and political pundits are writing about home grown terrorist and they know little of what they speak.

The lines are blurred enough between terrorists, criminals and crazies, that we do not need the uninformed to create a cottage industry at home.

The bad guys are out there and we need to focus our energies on who they are – the real terrorists.

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To close Gitmo or not to close Gitmo, that is the question – to paraphrase Shakespeare.

Recently a Defense Department official said a new report estimates that one-fifth of the detainees who have been released from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo to many) have resumed terrorist activity.

This will certainly intensify the debate over the Enemy Combatant prison in Gitmo. The Pentagon report on the released detainees remains classified and DoD officials refused to discuss it publicly. However, the Pentagon Press Secretary, Geoff Morrell, acknowledged the numbers had risen since April, when the DoD said about 74 former detainees – about 14% of those released – had returned to terrorist actions against the United States.

While this seems to concern Congress there has been little comment from the Administration.

The idea to bring enemy combatants, captured on the battlefield or captured in foreign countries, to be tried in federal courts is as much a bad idea as closing Gitmo.

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