Most circuses have a ring. This one will have a courtroom:
WASHINGTON — Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and four other men accused in the plot will be prosecuted in federal court in New York City, the United States attorney general announced Friday.
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Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said he would seek the death penalty against the five defendants if they are found guilty in federal court.
No big deal, right? I mean, New York has tried terrorists before. What the problem?
Democrat Senator Jim Webb knows (h/t Hot Air):
I have never disputed the constitutional authority of the President to convene Article III courts in cases of international terrorism. However, I remain very concerned about the wisdom of doing so. Those who have committed acts of international terrorism are enemy combatants, just as certainly as the Japanese pilots who killed thousands of Americans at Pearl Harbor. It will be disruptive, costly, and potentially counterproductive to try them as criminals in our civilian courts.
The precedent set by this decision deserves careful scrutiny as we consider proper venues for trying those now held at Guantanamo who were apprehended outside of this country for acts that occurred outside of the country. And we must be especially careful with any decisions to bring onto American soil any of those prisoners who remain a threat to our country but whose cases have been adjudged as inappropriate for trial at all. They do not belong in our country, they do not belong in our courts, and they do not belong in our prisons.
I have consistently argued that military commissions, with the additional procedural rules added by Congress and enacted by President Obama, are the most appropriate venue for trying individuals adjudged to be enemy combatants.
I was listening to Rush Limbaugh while I was at work today and he was quoting Andy McCarthy from National Review Online. See, it’s easy to attribute this as a leftist attempt to redefine the 9/11 attacks as a crime, not an act of war. But McCarthy says, and I agree with his thinking, that this is about putting the Bush Administration, the CIA and the military on trial:
Nothing results in more disclosures of government intelligence than civilian trials. They are a banquet of information, not just at the discovery stage but in the trial process itself, where witnesses — intelligence sources — must expose themselves and their secrets.
Let’s take stock of where we are at this point. KSM and his confederates wanted to plead guilty and have their martyrs’ execution last December, when they were being handled by military commission. As I said at the time, we could and should have accommodated them. The Obama administration could still accommodate them. After all, the president has not pulled the plug on all military commissions: Holder is going to announce at least one commission trial (for Nashiri, the Cole bomber) today.
Moreover, KSM has no defense. He was under American indictment for terrorism for years before there ever was a 9/11, and he can’t help himself but brag about the atrocities he and his fellow barbarians have carried out.
So: We are now going to have a trial that never had to happen for defendants who have no defense. And when defendants have no defense for their own actions, there is only one thing for their lawyers to do: put the government on trial in hopes of getting the jury (and the media) spun up over government errors, abuses and incompetence. That is what is going to happen in the trial of KSM et al. It will be a soapbox for al-Qaeda’s case against America.
Is there another logical reason to bring him to America? Please add it to the comments section. But from where I sit, this guy is ripe for a military tribunal to listen to his confession and then have a firing squad execute him.
Related posts:
- Why Isn’t This a Capital Offense?
- “We are extending Fourth Amendment (constitutional) rights to a terrorist foreigner . . . who’s captured a U.S. soldier.â€
- China’s Spy Operation Long in the Making
- Obama Makes Plans to Close Gitmo – In Other News, 61 Former Gitmo Detainees Return to Terrorism
- Bush to Close Gitmo?
I think the firing squad would be too kind!
Question: Is there a way to make the comment type a little larger. It looks like it is 8. A little hard for us older folk to read. :-)
Dominique´s last blog ..Recount in NY!
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This is just one more way for Obama to show a total lack of respect for our country, and for the American people. This is worse than ‘a slap in the face’–this is more like a ‘dagger in the hearts’ of the American people, the victims of 9/11, and their families.
As for this BEAST, bringing him to American soil for a trial, will only serve as an open door to more severe TERRORISTS attacks, I don’t give a rat’s rear-end what the Obama administration says, they are TERRORISTS.
While I hold a strong belief in the death penalty, in this case I would disagree, simply because that is EXACTLY what they want–they want to die as martyrs to their faith believing that they will be rewarded in heaven with 20 virgins. Well, I say sentence them to LIFE, and if they want to die so badly, let them commit suicide.
It is a sad day indeed when our own president has such little compassion and respect for a country he has sworn to protect. Well, America is UNprotected right now, because the president cares more about golfing, and basketball than he does the American people.
Nancy´s last blog ..Now here is a POTUS we can believe in.
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I have a solution that could save the US government a lot of money… And I could even do it without any guns/bullets. I might use a metal baseball bat, though.
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[...] course, the trial is a circus. It is designed to be. It is designed to get people to pay attention to [...]
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