The Bush administration is telling American diplomats to defend the decision to seek death for six Guantanamo Bay detainees accused in the Sept. 11 terror attacks by recalling the executions of Nazi war criminals.

A State Department cable sent to U.S. embassies abroad and obtained by The Associated Press says that capital punishment is an internationally accepted sentence for those convicted of serious war crimes. As proof, the cable notes that some of Adolf Hitler's most senior aides were executed after being condemned to die at the Nuremberg trials in 1945 and 1946.

US compares 9/11 trials to Nuremberg
Is Bush going to be a death penalty supporter when he goes on trial?