Should enemy combatants be held indefinitely?

The military jurors in Guantanamo Bay Detention Centre in Cuba who gave Osama bin Laden's driver a light sentence want him freed from Guantanamo once he completes it in December. (most of his sentence was ‘time already served while waiting for his trial) They were frustrated to learn the military can hold him indefinitely. The question is; would holding him in custody indefinitely be legal?

In my opinion, the answer is yes. The word, ‘indefinitely’ means; not definite; without fixed or specified limit. In other words, it could mean forever or it could mean within a certain period of time not specified.

The driver could be kept in custody until he dies of old age. To imprison him for that long would not necessarily be illegal. He had been judged as a supporter of terrorism and life imprisonment would be appropriate.

As it turned out, he was also defined as an enemy combatant. Such persons are kept in custody until the war if over. They are generally referred to as prisoners of war. The trouble facing Salim Hamdan, a citizen of Yemen, is that the war on terrorism could go on for decades. That being as it is, he could be held in custody for decades and even possible for the rest of his life.

I am not convinced that driving your boss who is a terrorist can really be classed as supporting terrorism however, that being as his actions were classed, he could be kept in custody until the United States government concludes that the war on terrorism is finally over. I doubt that conclusion will be reached in this man’s lifetime. We will never really know what else he did while he was with Osama bin Laden but the fact that he served that master of terrorism is suffice in my mind that he should not be set free.

That being as it is, I think he should be placed in a minimum security institution after he has served the remainder his sentence and kept there until the Americans are satisfied that he won’t be a danger to society. That may mean he will never be released but if that is so, while he is in the minimum security prison, he should be afforded all the privileges that he can be given while in custody. In some minimum security prisons, it is almost like being in a resort. I don’t have a problem with that so long as he isn’t set free.