Krauthammer and Barnes call for ‘indefinite detention’ law for suspected terrorists

Think Progress
Wednesday, Dec 10, 2008

Last night on Fox News, war hawks Charles Krauthammer and Fred Barnes expressed outrage at President-elect Obama’s pledge to close the Guantanamo Bay prison for suspected terrorists. As an alternative, Krauthammer called on Democrats to pass an “indefinite detention” law; Barnes wholeheartedly agreed:

KRAUTHAMMER: We’re going to have to have a law which is going to allow indefinite detention, and it is going to be Democrats who will actually have to craft it. I think that’s poetic justice. […]

BARNES: Guantanamo will be hard. You have to pass new laws. As Charles says, you have to pass a permanent detention law in the case of some of these guys.

However the two did not agree on the rationalization for such a law. Barnes said Gitmo detainees are “almost” treated better there than in any other prison in the world, while Krauthammer argued that the U.S. interned Germans and Japanese indefinitely during WWII and the same should apply now. Watch it: