Because Every Circus Needs A Ringmaster
USS Cole, 9/11 plotter to be tried in New York. So the anti-war left finally gets the Bush-Cheney trial is has so desperately wanted, Judge Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, A.Q., presiding.
It would be easy to get depressed about the prospect of unlawful combatants, war criminals, being afforded all the rights and privileges of American citizens in a civilian court. But apparently we’ll have to get past that. Might as well sit back and enjoy the show … the Greatest Show on Earth! NYT:
The arrangements would mean that civilian prosecutors would handle those detainees accused of the 2001 terrorist attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, northern Virginia, and Pennsylvania, while the 2000 attack against the Cole would remain within the military system. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the press conference has not yet taken place.
No detainee is being moved right away. Under a law Congress enacted earlier this year, lawmakers must be given 45 days notice before the executive branch moves any Guantanamo Bay detainee onto United States soil.
The decision marks a milestone in the administration’s efforts to close the Guantanamo prison, something that President Obama announced shortly after taking office he would do within a year, but which has proven difficult to achieve because of uncertainty about what to do with the detainees housed there.
Mr. Obama, asked about the decision during a news conference on his week-long trip to Asia, declined to comment directly, but said that Mr. Mohammed would face justice.
“I’m absolutely convinced that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed will be subject to the most exacting demands of justice,” Mr. Obama said. “The American people insist on it and my administration insists on it.”
Well, if that’s the case, then I exactingly demand a drumhead trial followed swiftly by firing squad. However morbidly entertaining the spectacle of Obama’s hearkening to his inner Kumbayah chorus with the most ridiculous of civil liberty sops may prove to be. Mr. Obama missed the other insistent audience to this trial that I imagine with express its appreciation in the quaint car- and consulate-burning fashion that is its wont.
News quiz: While attacking Islamic terror support bases has been a great recruiting tool for jihad, trying terrorist war criminals under American criminal law in open court with full American constitutional will make them like us better. True or false.
OK, eight graphs into that NYT article, still no mention of the fact that trying terrorist war criminals in civilian court might be controversial. Hang on, here we go:
Still, the prospect of giving different detainees different kinds of trials, based on where government officials think they can win convictions, has led to criticism by some human rights and civil liberties advocates.
Never mind, that wasn’t quite what I was thinking of. The article goes on to note that New Yorkers are accustomed to terrorists, so trying him there won’t be such a big deal. I wouldn’t be so sure, but whatever. If NYT’s basic-black-and-keffiyeh crowd is cool with it …
Then we get to this:
The decisions about how to prosecute Mr. Mohammed and Mr. Nashiri have been particularly difficult because their defense lawyers are expected to argue that they were illegally tortured by the Central Intelligence Agency during their confinement, tainting any evidence gathered from their interrogations. The Bush administration later sent a so-called “clean team” to re-question the prisoners in preparations for military commission trials.
Documents have shown that the CIA used waterboarding — a controlled drowning technique — against Mr. Mohammed 183 times in March 2003. Mr. Nashiri is one of two other detainees known to have been waterboarded before the Bush administration shut down the program, which high-level officials had approved after the Justice Department wrote legal memorandums arguing that the president, as commander-in-chief, could authorize interrogators to bypass anti-torture laws.
Curiously, no mention of the potential for any defense attorney to turn that into a regular Siegfried and Roy act, complete with tiger-tamers being chewed up by tigers! Some more details of the alleged criminal incident, charges and legal particulars and we’re out. Like this isn’t a three-ring circus in the making at all, but some relatively normal, if high-profile, criminal prosecution. And, incidentally, no mention of the fact that some portion of the American public might consider this prospect to be a legal abomination and a travesty of justice.
Never mind that. What KSM’s entertainment value? Well, he’s got undeniable star power and a certain terrorvoire faire:
“We Are Jackals Fighting In The Nights” In which KSM shows himself to be a world-class braggart and highly creative deep thinker in addition to being an unrepentant terrorist.
End Of An Era In which KSM tests his ability to preside over a trial.
Topics: Jihad, Obama, al qaeda, justice, terrorists
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:23 am Comments (4) on Friday, November 13, 2009
4 Responses to “Because Every Circus Needs A Ringmaster”
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November 13th, 2009 at 10:55 am
They could always drop him in Central Park, naked, at midnight. With $100 dollar bills glued to him.
November 13th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
The only justice KSM should receive.
November 13th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
The other group who will be on trial at the hearings are the interrogators and the CIA. I guess the agents who aren’t in Italian prisons will finally be held accountable for being alive.
November 13th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
[...] Jules Crittendon muses, I’m sure that this will make all of the terrorists and radical Islamists and the rest of the w…. And then we’ll all live in perfect harmony and can sing Kumbaya together and be [...]