KSM's civilian trial in NYC - I can hardly wait till liberals start calling for KSM's release. And blaming it on Bush when it happens, of course. I expect KSM will walk ... and he'll get to stay in the US.
The latest version of the 'Trial of the Century'
Rick Moran
Talk about a feeding frenzy, the latest incarnation of the "Trial of the Century" will take place in New York City and feature all the elements that the cable nets find irresistible; high drama, low comedy, and a ready made, real life villain of extraordinary evil.
The mastermind of 9/11, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be tried for his crimes at a criminal trial in New York City, according to Evan Perez of the Wall Street Journal:
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and four others accused in the attacks will be put on criminal trial in New York, Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to announce later Friday.
The decision, described by people familiar with the matter, is part of wider announcement planned on how to bring to justice detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay prison. It's the first set of decisions before a Monday deadline on how to deal with the more than 200 prisoners remaining at the facility, which President Barack Obama has ordered closed.
Also expected in the announcement Friday will be plans to hold a military tribunal for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, alleged to have planned the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole.
Mr. Mohammed's trial in New York was widely expected since the Obama administration announced a preference to hold criminal trials, instead of military commissions for terror suspects held at Guantanamo. New York's Manhattan U.S. attorney competed with the district in northern Virginia, home to the Pentagon, to prosecute the 9/11 accused and senior al Qaeda leader. A team of prosecutors from both districts will handle the government's case, people familiar with the matter said.
Formal charges aren't expected to be announced for another few weeks. Mr. Mohammed has claimed authorship of the attacks, but he has also accused U.S. interrogators of torturing him. U.S. officials have acknowledged the use of harsh tactics, including water boarding, a technique intended to simulate drowning, which Mr. Obama and other government officials have called torture.
Criminal trials for those who make war on the United States? Still trying to be the "anti-Bush," Obama is an idiot for trying this.
Where to begin in criticizing this idiocy? If you thought the OJ Simpson trial was a circus, you'll love KSM's coming extravaganza. Lawyers, salivating over 7 figure advances for book contracts. Ditto the judge. Ditto the prosecutors. Double dittos for the jurors.
So many books are going to be written by people involved with this trial that someone would be able to open a small library to house them.
Does that matter? Only if you think the principles will act in such a way that makes for better narrative in a best seller than in the interests of justice.
Duh.
The whole point in trying these monsters through a military tribunal was to avoid all this hoopla, this modern day serial soap opera. It will no doubt be televised (there isn't a judge in the country who would deny the people their spectacle).
Another danger - a real one - is that classified information, including testimony from informants, will no doubt find its way into the media. There are many ways in which we gathered evidence against KSM including the use of "national technical means" - a euphemism for satellites and other top secret technologies, and buying off small fry al-Qaeda members to fill us in on KSM's activities.
Prediction; the trial will take 2 or more years and there is a good chance KSM will be acquitted. So much evidence will be thrown out that unless the charges are broadly drawn to include other activities of KSM against the US, he may very well skate.
I also predict George Bush will be vindicated in his decision to try these evil doers out of the public eye.
americanthinker.com
Disbelief in response to news of KSM's upcoming trial in New York
Clarice Feldman
The news that the administration plans to try the 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a civilian court in New York has placed the Holder/Obama team's legal idiocy in the spotlight. Some have noted how impossible it will be to impanel a fair jury in NY where the most awful destruction occurred.
Others note this makes NY the terror target of the world.
Still others have questioned whether the Administration really plans to release Mohammad in case he would be acquitted, the administration having earlier suggested that in such cases it would retain the right to hold the accused - but acquitted - in detention.
It all appears suicidal as Tom Maguire notes :
Team Obama has to postpone these trials until after the 2010 elections or this will go down as the biggest "own-goal" of the century millenium.
NRO's Andy McCarthy has the most diabolical interpretation of this seemingly idiotic move:
"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. Since that will be their "defense," the defendants will demand every bit of information they can get about interrogations, renditions, secret prisons, undercover operations targeting Muslims and mosques, etc., and - depending on what judge catches the case - they are likely to be given a lot of it. The administration will be able to claim that the judge, not the administration, is responsible for the exposure of our defense secrets. And the circus will be played out for all to see - in the middle of the war. It will provide endless fodder for the transnational Left to press its case that actions taken in America's defense are violations of international law that must be addressed by foreign courts. And the intelligence bounty will make our enemies more efficient at killing us."
americanthinker.com |
