Washington (CNN) -- Attorney General Eric Holder will announce Friday that five Guantanamo Bay detainees with alleged ties to the 9/11 conspiracy, including accused mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be transferred to New York to go on trial in civilian court, according to an Obama administration official.
...
The official said Mohammed, Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali
and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi will all be transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York -- a short distance from the World Trade Center towers that were destroyed in the September 11 attacks.
(emphasis mine)
Civilian court. What's the indictment for? 3,000 counts of murder? We're back to treating terrorism as a law enforcement issue, when it is clearly a military issue. These people are the enemy, folks. They want us dead. They want our way of life destroyed. They are not about to be cowed by the thought of going to freakin' jail - hell, they recruit in our prisons.
This is especially puzzling:
Holder will also announce that five other detainees held at the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be sent to military commissions for trial. They were identified as Omar Khadr, Mohammed Kamin, Ibrahim al Qosi, Noor Uthman Muhammed and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.
So, we're going to try the lower-level conspirators in a military commission, but the head honcho gets a civilian trial? Does that make sense to anyone? Now, I will be the first to plead ignorance as to how a military trial works, but I cannot imagine it would be less punitive than a civilian court. Additionally, how does New York handle the death penalty? For that matter, wouldn't any even marginally competent lawyer jump up and down screaming that his client cannot receive a fair trial in New York?
It's almost like they're setting this up to fail...
That is all.
10 comments:
Well, since KSM has been in custody for at least four years, it would seem that the last inhabitant of 1600 Penna. Ave. didn't do such a hot job of taking care of the problem, when he had the chance.
...Almost setting us up to fail...?
"It's almost like they're setting this up to fail..."
Whaddaya mean "almost?"
Hey, do you remember how the FDR administration indicted Hirohito and brought him to Hawaii for trial in 1942? Yeah, me neither.
So how are they determining who gets tried in civilian court and who gets tried in military court?
Oh, my. This is a 3 inch putt.
Why are they giving KSM a civilian trial, and all the worthless underlings get to stay with military trials?
KSM was "tortured" (spare me the debate about whether water-boarding is actually torture - The Left is in control of this farce, and they say it is torture). All of that treatment* by us will be brought up in trial to prove his "innocence" -- while simultaneously being used to establish the guilt of his interrogators (aka the Bush Admin).
The goal here is not to free KSM. The goal here is to smear the Bush Admin as war criminals.
*-some will be in open court, some will be in judge's chambers, to get any charges related to any "post-9-11 planned attacks" dropped. Anything that lands in the judge's ear, in court or in chambers, will make its way to The Hague, or at least to Eric Holder's office.
Well, by brief research on wikipedia:
Due to the results of People V. LaVelle (2004) the state of New York does not have an active death penalty.
Up to that point, New York state had not executed any Death Row inmates since 1976, when the death penalty had been reinstated; following the 1972 national moratorium.
Really doubt he'll be getting the death penalty under the state system.
If, however, the Federal system is slated to be the venue, he could quite well receive death.
just a thought...now, i wouldn't ever accuse herr prezbo (or his administration) of being red-blooded americans enough to think like this but...a trial in NYC would have a more...publicly accessible rout from jail to courthouse every day...
This is the Federal trial, he's Federal (M'Veigh) death eligible.
Yes, a stupid decision. But think of all the millions (direct from the taxpayers) for defence lawyers and (in terms of spectacle to sell) journalists!
And it's LaValle, not LaVelle.
Hey, Comrade Misfit --
Ever think that perhaps, just perhaps, KSM was still yielding valuable info -- if only background checks against other jihadists?
That's just ONE reason to keep the crumb around.
I mean, the current ledaership has had control of him for alomost a year.
So, Bush had KSM for about 3 useable years, part of the last of which they weren't making ANY irretrievable decisions on ANYTHING that wouldn't be completed before the next Administration took charge, and part of the time they had him in custody, they were still hammering out the final rules on how to deal with these people -- given that the original plans (set up in EXACT conformity with what was THEN the binding SCOTUS rulings) got tossed out by SCOTUS, and they had to wait on Congress to fix it. And of course, they wanted to ask the guy a couple of questions to help find his fellow cockroaches.
Of course, the Left, Libertarians, and Pollyannas completely overlook the fact that detained combatants can be held INDEFINENTLY during teh span of teh conflict -- they have NO right or resort to a "speedy" or "public" trial. hell, only if tehy are "lawful combatants" do they even have a specified amount of contact with teh outside world, in the form of rationed contact cards.
FROM DAY ONE, these terrorists have been treated BETTER than US law or the Geneva Convention have required.
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