Unfortunately it is human to engage in acts of terror, it's also immoral and cowardly, but it is done sometimes out of sheer desperation and powerlessness as well as evil, twisted thinking.
The point is in the " War on Terror" Habeas corpus is under attack around the world, this simple but crucial civil writ allows people being detained to demand that charges be placed against them, followed by a trial. It safeguards the illegal detention of prisoners from sometimes years of unlawful detention (Guantanamo) because said authorities think they might have or might be able to get or "feel it in their gut" that that they have rightful suspects - this is definitely not in accordance with international law or civil/human rights.
Yes governments around the world have and do suspend it in times of war and I am not arguing against the arrest and detention of suspects, but it is the ongoing abuse of this right by denying prisoners the right to challenge the detention and demand that charges be made that is contentious and complicated. Men have spent years in Guantanamo on no charges, been force fed during hunger strikes and denied basic civil rights.
Many have been cleared by the authorities of anything and pose no threat to national security are still not released.
Excerpt from Bradley Manning's letter in the New York Times Aug 22 2013
Private Manning added:
It was not until I was in Iraq and reading secret military reports on a daily basis that I started to question the morality of what we were doing. It was at this time I realized that (in) our efforts to meet the risk posed to us by the enemy, we have forgotten our humanity. We consciously elected to devalue human life both in Iraq and Afghanistan. When we engaged those that we perceived were the enemy, we sometimes killed innocent civilians. Whenever we killed innocent civilians, instead of accepting responsibility for our conduct, we elected to hide behind the veil of national security and classified information in order to avoid any public accountability.
In our zeal to kill the enemy, we internally debated the definition of torture. We held individuals at Guantanamo for years without due process. We inexplicably turned a blind eye to torture and executions by the Iraqi government. And we stomached countless other acts in the name of our war on terror.
Guantánamo Rulings Change Little
By JOE NOCERA
Published: July 22, 2013 New York Times
[... And so it goes at Guantánamo Bay. The lawyers representing the detainees make motion after motion, appeal after appeal. It gets them nowhere. With the exception of that one Supreme Court ruling — which had been systematically undercut by the court of appeals — the court system has opted out of dealing with the problem that the Guantánamo prison represents to the country. If the detainees are ever going to get relief, it will have to come from elsewhere...]
The truth is, there is one person who could get them out tomorrow — if he chose. That same person could stop the military from force-feeding the detainees. I am referring, of course, to President Obama. Yet despite decrying the Guantánamo prison, the president has refused to do anything but stand by and watch the military inflict needless pain and suffering, much of it on men who simply shouldn’t be there. Indeed, in many of the legal briefs filed on behalf of Guantánamo prisoners, the defendant is Barack Obama.
“Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution provides that ‘[t]he President shall be the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States,” wrote Judge Kessler in her pained but eloquent opinion. One longs for the day when he finally acts the part.