SirNitram wrote:Riiiiiight. Just Shep trolling around again, no change..
Actually you got to wonder about how superior the British
system of fighting terrorism is. See, Britain doesn't have
the death penalty; they abolished it even for High Treason
a bit back because of the EU. Now, having no death penalty
when fighting domestic terrorists wouldn't be much of a
problem since you can just throw them in gaol for life or
20 years...
The big problem with that approach is that the British prison
system is woefully incompetent when it comes to containing
and preventing escapes by political prisoners.
HMP Maze was supposed to be the best maximum security prison
in the Continent, yet:
1.) In October 1974, continued confrontation between prisoners and the Maze
authorities culminated in the Provisional IRA, and the Official IRA,
setting fire to every compound in the prison except the two which held
Loyalist prisoners.
2.) In September 1983, 38 Republican prisoners successfully escaped from
the Maze, although 19 were quickly recaptured. One prison officer died of
injuries sustained during the escape. To date 4 remain at large.
3.) In 1993 two Prison Officers were stripped naked and covered with paint
in a wing, and shots were fired into the homes of other prison staff. Later
that year there were riots by Loyalist prisoners at the Maze, and a Prison
Officer was shot dead in his home in retaliation for the subsequent lock-up.
4.) There were further major disturbances at the Maze in March 1995, when
Loyalist prisoners rioted following a search by prison officers. The riot
caused extensive damage to one H Block, and about 200 officers suffered
from smoke inhalation or other injury, resulting in lengthy periods of
sick absence.
5.) In March 1997 Republican prisoners dug a tunnel from a cell on a segregated
wing and disposed of the debris in two adjoining cells. Ultimately the escape
attempt was a failure, because the tunnel was discovered by a dog handler,
following an external collapse.
6.) On 10 December 1997 prisoner Liam Averill, who had served two years of a
life sentence, escaped under cover of the Provisional IRA children's party.
7.) On 27 December 1997 Prisoner Billy Wright, the leader of the LVF faction
at the Maze, was shot and killed in the forecourt of an H Block while being
transported to the visits complex. Three members of the Irish National Liberation
Army faction surrendered themselves and their weapons and were subsequently
convicted of the murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. They were later
released under the Northern Ireland (Sentences) Act resulting from the Good
Friday Agreement.
Now, seeing as HMP Maze wasn't as break-free or secure as they'd claimed,
Britain was faced with a quandary. They couldn't keep domestic terrorists
contained, so their solution was simple: utilize the Special Air Service
to simply kill terrorists to get around the death penalty limitation.
By contrast, Gitmo has been very trouble free, when people go in they don't
come out unless we let them go free. Therefore we are much more experienced
than the British in containing terrorists.
Both sides are to blame for the way things have got.
