A reoccurring theme at Fox News seems to be that alleged terrorists should be killed rather than tried in a court of law or military tribunal. Fox News host Brian Kilmeade became the latest personality to add his voice to the mix Monday. In a
August 30, 2010

A reoccurring theme at Fox News seems to be that alleged terrorists should be killed rather than tried in a court of law or military tribunal.

Fox News host Brian Kilmeade became the latest personality to add his voice to the mix Monday.

In a segment designed to highlight the fact that the Obama administration still has not brought any of the 9/11 co-conspirators to justice, Kilmeade explained that the message to US forces is that alleged terrorists should be killed instead of captured.

"I will say this, the message is to our special forces, the message is to our CIA, kill them in the field because we can't find a way to try them at home," Kilmeade told Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson Jr.

Kilmeade added, "And that might have some good points but the bad points is that we can't get intelligence out of them if we don't have them here to interrogate."

Johnson attempted to explain why the alleged terrorists weren't being brought to justice. "What we have is this kind of schizophrenia," said Johnson. "On the one hand, we want to honor the dead. On one hand, we want to pay tribute to the first responders but when it comes time to exact justice for the people who are responsible for the architects of this act, when it comes time to provide justice for the people who provided comfort and aide to New Yorkers, the people in Virginia and people in Washington, in Pennsylvania who had these [experiences] on 9/11, we're not so quick to do that."

Kilmeade is not the first person appearing on Fox News to suggest that alleged terrorists should be killed without due process.

In 2009, Col. Ralph Peters told Fox News host Neil Cavuto that terrorist should be killed. "And again, Neil, once you commit an act of terror, in my book, you are outside, you are anathema, and you should be killed," said Peters.

Appearing earlier that year on the conservative news network, former CIA officer Gary Bernsten argued that Guantanamo Bay detainees should be executed.

"Many of those individuals that are there are enemy combatants and that's based on the Geneva Conventions and should be executed," said Gary Berntsen, who spent 20 years with the CIA, to Fox's Gretchen Carlson on the show, Fox & Friends. "It's ridiculous that the Bush administration, after seven years, didn't deal with many of those that we know are enemy combatants."

[..]

Berntsen also advocated for the execution of self-described 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, saying that he no longer serves any intelligence purpose for the U.S.

"After seven years, the intel is dried up. Execute him," he said.

Bernsten, a Republican candidate for Senator from New York, recently received attention due to a widely circulated email calling for voters to choose him for his position that detainees should be killed.

Gary understands that there is no reasoning with these people, and we need to take them out back and shoot them in the back of the head. Then, bill their families for the cost of the f***ing bullet.

When asked for comment, Matthew Richter, a spokesman for Bernsten, stood by the candidate's remarks but said, "let's not lose sight of the fact that Gary and his team captured many of the detainees in Gitmo and after 8 years of incarceration Gary simply wants to see these cases tried and concluded."

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