Two suspected ISIS militants known as "the Beatles" should be tried before a military tribunal rather than in federal court because they are enemy combatants, retired Gen. H.R. McMaster, a former national security advisor for President Donald Trump, said Friday.
"These are some of the most heinous people on Earth," McMaster said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "These are people who want to murder our children. They are the enemies of all humanity. They have inflicted a tremendous humanitarian crisis on the people of the region, and their goal.is to continue this jihadist terrorist war against all civilized people."
The British terrorists, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, are accused of involvement in the murders of several international hostages, including U.S. aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller and journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley. They have been nicknamed the "Beatles" because of their British accents.
"When I say enemies they are enemies of all humanity," said McMaster. "They are people who use a perverted interpretation of religion to justify their criminal acts against mostly Muslims but against Americans, too. They need to go away forever in whatever venue."
McMaster said he does not doubt they will be convicted in a U.S. federal court, but he thinks there should be more effort to make military tribunals work.
"This work is not going away," he said. "These enemies are not going to stop (their) murderous campaigns against us."
McMaster also commented about President Donald Trump's plan to return troops from Afghanistan by Christmas, saying he's concerned that the United States may have given too many concessions.
"We seem to have partnered with the Taliban who are intertwined with these terrorist organizations against the Afghan government who is fighting to retain the freedoms that they earned in 2001 fighting alongside us, after the brutal rule of the Taliban they were subjected to from 1996 to 2001."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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