The Terrorist Next Door?

In John Gregory Dunne's novel Dutch Shea Jr., the title character, a lawyer on the edge, has an relationship with a judge nicknamed "Structured Setting Martha." When sentencing perpetrators, the judge would always say "I think you'd be better off in a structured setting."

Unlike garden-variety criminals, Gitmo detainees apparently aren't better off in a structured setting.

Attorney General Eric Holder said some detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may end up being released in the U.S. as the Obama administration works with foreign allies to resettle some of the prisoners.

Mr. Holder, in a briefing with reporters, said administration officials are still reviewing individual cases of the approximately 250 detainees to determine which will be put on trial and which may be released to comply with plans to close the detention facility by next year.

Presumably the 9/11 plotters currently jailed at Gitmo will be locked up indefinitely. In legal papers released on March 10, the detainees were unrepentant about their involvement in the attack: "The five detainees...have filed a document with the military commission...expressing pride at their accomplishment and accepting full responsibility for the killing of nearly 3,000 people." The full document can be accessed here.