They are obviously prisoners of war, despite not wearing uniforms when captured.
They should be tried and sentenced or released.
Even if this does not happen, we are paying way too much to keep using Gitmo as a prison just to satisfy the revenge instincts of fools like Sen. Cotton.
No.
Prisoners of war are not tried for the normal conduct of warfare.
Prisoners of war are held for the duration , unless they can be accused of war crimes.
If they are ordinary criminals , in whose jurisdiction was their crime committed?
Neither President Bush nor President Obama nor the Congress have done the right thing.
Keeping the status of these guys ambiguous keeps them from availing themselves of their rights as accused under our constitution, or as prisoners of war as combatants under the Geneva Convention.
Of course this works out well for them also, some of them are caught red handed in murder if they are criminals ,or would be held for the duration of a war that they intend to continue forever.
Ambiguous prisoners can be traded like playing cards, a lot of them have been released without a trial or a resolution of the conflict.
The placement and the expense are not as important as the precedent, kind of a bad precedent whether you look at Bush , Obama or the Congresses that have all dropped this ball.