The U.S. should conduct a unilateral operation to remove two British Islamic State officers currently being held in Syria.
That course of action is necessary in light of the British government’s decision on Thursday to suspend cooperation with the U.S. over deciding where the two individuals, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, should be tried. Both men are currently in the detention of the U.S.-aligned Syrian Democratic Forces.
President Trump must not equivocate here.
For a start, time is now of the essence in getting these two killers into U.S. custody. That’s because the motivating factor behind Britain’s suspension of cooperation is the rising interest of the British legal human rights community in the ISIS “Beatles” case. Challenging Britain’s decision to allow the U.S. to seek the death penalty if it takes custody of the terrorists, the human rights activists despise not just the U.S. military justice system but also the U.S. federal criminal justice system. And having won this small victory they will push hard to see the Beatles extradited to Britain or, even more alarmingly, to the international court at the Hague.
Either outcome would be a disaster for the cause of justice.
If prosecuted in the U.K, the terrorists will likely face a long sentence but not life without parole (child killers regularly don’t even get that in the U.K.). They will also have access to amenities like regular exercise time, relative free movement, social contact in prison, and other luxuries not afforded in U.S. supermax prisons. If prosecuted at the Hague, the terrorists will ensure millions of dollars are wasted navigating the Hague’s amazingly lethargic judicial procedure. They’ll also experience relative luxury in their cells and likely receive a sentence in the range of 10-20 years. Such pathetic penalties for such grotesque crimes would require a future U.S. president to extradite or forcibly remove the Beatles from European soil on completion of their original sentences.
So Trump should get ahead of the curve.
As senior operations officers for ISIS, Kotey and Elsheikh should be tried under the U.S. military tribunal system at Guantanamo Bay. The moral cause of that remedy is clear: in their service to the Daesh death cult, these two men played integral roles in the interrogation, torture, and execution of western hostages like James Foley. They also helped ISIS abuse women and use innocent lives for spectacles of horrific murder. Though much of it remains classified, the evidence against the ISIS Beatles is overwhelming and multi-sourced in nature.
But even if the White House decides to try Kotey and Elsheikh in civilian federal court, that will at least ensure they are effectively punished for their crimes. The federal supermax prison ADX Florence is not a nice place to live but at least the Beatles will be able to live alongside another Briton, the al Qaeda shoe bomber, Richard Reid.
Ultimately, this isn’t that complicated a problem. The U.S. has the military, intelligence, financial, and judicial capacity to extricate the terrorists from Syria in short order. Trump should order it done.
