For those of you who hadn’t been paying attention, ISIS had captured a Jordanian pilot and was trying to organize a prisoner swap.
Breaking news now, a video has surfaced showing them setting the guy on fire
Jordan is now readying its jihadist prisoners for execution, perhaps immediately.
Anyone want to offer suggestions? I say take the woman (who is a failed suicide bomber) rig her up with a suicide vest, and use her to blow up the rest of them.
They should adhere to the more enlightened standards of human rights, which involves not holding one person responsible for the unrelated actions of others.
But the also should open up their society to equal rights for women. (Yeah, I know, they’re a hell of a lot better than Saudi Arabia or Iran.)
I wouldn’t martyr her. Some of these clowns seem quite happy at the prospect of dying for their beliefs, I wonder how happy they would be at the prospect of living for them behind bars for the next 40 years.
These treads are always disgusting. The answer to horrific acts of cruelty is… other horrific acts of cruelty? Do we really want to be in a situation where the best we can say about our conduct is that the other guy does it too? Especially when the other guy is one of the most barbaric groups of people in recent history?
Indeed, I considered “give her a fair trial and show that the Jordanians are part of the Good Guys”, but these IS assholes would just giggle and check their list of who to kidnap next.
The extremely painful way this pilot was killed makes me wonder if similar military personnel - Western or Arab or whatever - facing imminent capture by ISIS terrorists will try to commit suicide (i.e., shooting themselves in the head) rather than be taken alive.
Jordan has a number of persons who have already been convicted in Jordanian courts of crimes that carry the death penalty in Jordan. I’m not sure what the appeals process is in Jordan, but likely if it’s anything like Saudi Arabia the only reason any of them were alive is just because the King hadn’t formally ordered their execution yet. At least in Saudi (which I’m more familiar with from the news), they’ll let condemned persons linger on for years and then often the King will commute the sentence to something else as a show of leniency. It’s usually complicated and political if/when that happens.
I imagine in this case the King is just deciding the waiting is over, so I don’t know that at least under Jordanian law anything that’s being done is wrong. Under international law, these people would not be considered POWs, they’re convicted criminals. I hope that they’re all guilty and were found guilty in a pseudo-legitimate court, but I don’t know much about the Jordanian legal system. The woman we know for a fact is someone who aided and abetted in mass murder and wanted to participate in it herself, so she at least I’m fine with her being executed. Assuming similar levels of proof for the other condemned prisoners, I’m fine with them being executed.
I know in an absolute monarchy it might seem silly, but I think it’s important Jordan not just execute people it has custody of but who haven’t been convicted of crimes–and I do not think that is what they are doing. My understanding is everyone they are planning to execute tomorrow had been condemned to death and were essentially awaiting execution anyway. I suspect some like the female suicide bomber, had not been executed yet simply because of a political hesitance to execute a woman in Jordan, which was removed after ISIS used her in a hostage negotiation in which one of the persons they were promising to spare (but not release) had they released her had in fact been burnt to death a month ago.
Well, for proper expressions of Recreational Outrage a thread should be started in the Pit.
Otherwise, IMHO, Jordan should follow the law and, ideally, International standards for the humane treatment of prisoners. Try their prisoners, convict (or not spending on the evidence and the law), and then carry out appropriate sentences.
Descending to the level of ISIS gains us nothing.
On the other hand, start a Pit thread, and I will gladly rant about their pox-infected, cactus-fucking, ass-hattery, because who the hell burns people to death. WTF.
Well this whole affair has apparently shaken the kings power base some. I assume local politics, rather legal niceties or international image, will inform his next move. Something brutal I imagine but maybe not a bunch of executions. Maybe firebomb an ISIS leader’s hometown or something.
I don’t think that’s true at all. Quite the opposite: The entire ordeal has united the Jordanians in a firmly pro-Abdullah, pro-coalition, anti-ISIS and anti-Al-Qaeda stance.