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[martinuzz]

I'd much rather they were killed than released after a handful of years in a cushy prison cell, only to take another crack at the whole terrorism thing (with the increased knowledge and contacts that comes with a stay in prison, naturally) upon release.

I don't get how anyone in their right mind would release them back into society ever. Even though EU forbids life long imprisonment, there's this thing called mandatory lifelong admission in a psych ward after serving prison sentence for those individuals that are still considered a threat to society, which is completely legal and in compliance with Human Rights. At least we have that in the Netherlands.

If it were up to me I'd put all idiots who went to Syria to join IS and returned to the Netherlands in there. Sadly, indeed, those only get a few months to a few years in prison.
But I'm sure if a real live terrorist were caught in the act, he'd never set foot in society anymore.

[Morrigi]

Who accused these people of being in their right minds?

[hector13]

See, the thing about locking up someone forever (or until someone "qualified" decides they're "better") really doesn't sound like something that complies with human rights.

[scriver]

Prison is against human rights now? They must've changed them while I wasn't watching.

[Culise]

EDIT: Actually, just scratch the whole thing.  I suspect I'm reading too much into the context.

[smjjames]

Meanwhile in Turkey, a US citizen, employed by NASA, has been arrested in Turkey for 'having ties to the Gulen movement'.

I guess Kerry, who will be going on an official visit to Turkey at the end of this month, will have one more thing to talk with Erdogan about.

Is the guy even Turkish or have a Turkish passport?

[Morrigi]

See, the thing about locking up someone forever (or until someone "qualified" decides they're "better") really doesn't sound like something that complies with human rights.

Without due process of law, you are correct. With it, it is a perfectly justifiable way to keep dangerous criminals from further harming society. Personally, I see nothing wrong with hanging terrorists and mass murderers, as long as there is no doubt whatsoever in their guilt.

[Orange Wizard]

Death penalty has been phased out for good reason IMO. I don't have an issue with keeping terrorists in a psychiatric facility for an indefinite period, as long as they're given basic necessities and preferably some work to do.

[Rolepgeek]

I always feel like people are too quick to decide that these people have basically had their souls corrupted for life-ever, because they went to a certain part of the world. Little bit more complicated than that. But of course, saying so means I'm a terrorist sympathizer. Because anyone who is Muslim and goes to Syria is a terrorist, and especially everyone who goes home afterwards, those people definitely need to be locked up on sight in isolation forever. Zero doubts as to guilt, is self-evident from Islamicness and Was-In-Syrianess. No need for screening or rehabilitation. Must simply be locked away/killed for good of country.

[Orange Wizard]

If they went to Syria to join ISIS, then they're terrorists themselves, not just sympathisers. Sympathisers should probably be given some psych eval and surveillance as well.

[martinuzz]

Prison is against human rights now? They must've changed them while I wasn't watching.

Prison is not against human rights. Life long imprisonment with no prospect of parole or otherwise ever being released is against human rights.
The EU even has a dispute with the Netherlands about it. We still have life sentence in our law. This used to be okay with the EU, because we have an option for parole (the king can grant that).
However, the last time anyone was paroled over here is over 40 years ago, so now the EU argues that we don't have parole, and we have to scrap life long imprisonment from our law to comply with a verdict from the EU human rights court.

Putting someone in psych ward for the rest of their lives however is not against human rights (although arguably it should be), as long as they are re-evaluated to see if it is possible to release them every 5 years. Psychiatric patients sadly have less human rights than sane people, although psychiatric patient rights NGOs have been working over the past years to improve their rights through UN lobby and research.

[Antioch]

I would say that the recent amount of terror attacks perpetrated with knives/machetes is a very good sign that gun control is a good thing.

I thought the gun lobby said that terrorists and criminals would always get access to guns anyway.

Those people would have made an order of magnitude more casualties if they had easy access to guns.

[hector13]

See, the thing about locking up someone forever (or until someone "qualified" decides they're "better") really doesn't sound like something that complies with human rights.

Without due process of law, you are correct. With it, it is a perfectly justifiable way to keep dangerous criminals from further harming society. Personally, I see nothing wrong with hanging terrorists and mass murderers, as long as there is no doubt whatsoever in their guilt.

You're unlikely to be able to find absolutely no doubt in any judicial verdict, which is an issue when you have such an absolute punishment as death. It can't be reversed if any new evidence comes up years down the line.

[Rolepgeek]

If they went to Syria to join ISIS, then they're terrorists themselves, not just sympathisers. Sympathisers should probably be given some psych eval and surveillance as well.

But that's my point. You don't know if they went to Syria to join ISIS. You don't know what they did there. Everyone in this thread seems to be saying that if somebody goes to Syria, it means they're a terrorist by definition. They might have gone to join ISIS. They also might have realized that fighting the holy war was not all it was cracked up to be, and actually involved doing some pretty terrible things, and left for that reason. Or they might have just gone to help in a refugee camp because that's also considered a holy mission of sorts. You keep an eye on the people who came back. You don't imprison the lot of them.

[martinuzz]

Anyone who travels to Syria from one of our western countries that have pretty decent and minimally censored media knows what's going on there, and surely won't be going there to give puppies to child amputees. If you really think they could go there to do good deeds instead of join IS, you're very naive.

Or if they did go there to give puppies to child amputees there's clearly something mentally wrong enough with them to justify locking them up in a psych ward.