November 17, 2009 7:11 AM
Obama, Holder bring jihadist terrorist KSM to NYC for trial
Every day, another atrocity by an administration that seems hellbent on taking down America any way it can.
On Friday, Eric Holder announced that he was moving five major terrorists - including the self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 plot to New Your City for a criminal trial rather than the military tribunal they had been facing.
These five had all announced their guilt 11 months ago and asked for execution.
Now, though they are not American citizens - KSM was captured in the Mideast - they are to be given all the rights accorded American citizens. In effect, this is a way of putting American counterintelligence on trial, opening up all our operations under full disclosure laws and turning the Bush administration - which kept us safe from terror for seven years - into the enemy.
As usual, Obama - like Pilate - washes his hands and pretends this is Holder's decision. But let's be clear: Obama can stop this madness.
And we need to pray that he does.
This, coupled with his lack of concern for the clearly jihadist attack on Fort Hood and the administration's treatment - through Napolitano and Holder - of conservatives as domestic terrorists is very ominous. Please see my next post: The Third Jihad.
Trial and TerrorAlso: Obama's NYC Show: Starring Khalid Mohammed
The Left gets its reckoning.By Andrew C. McCarthy
The decision to bring Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other top al-Qaeda terrorists to New York City for a civilian trial is one of the most irresponsible ever made by a presidential administration. That it is motivated by politics could not be more obvious. That it spells unprecedented danger for our security will soon become obvious.
The five 9/11 plotters were originally charged in a military commission. Military commissions have been approved by Congress and the courts. Eleven months ago, the jihadists were prepared to end the military case by pleading guilty and proceeding to execution. Plus, the Obama administration is continuing the commission system for other enemy combatants accused of war crimes. If we are going to have military commissions for any war criminals, it is senseless not to have them for the worst war criminals. In sum, there is no good legal or policy rationale for transferring these barbarians to the civilian justice system. Doing so will prompt a hugely costly three-ring circus of a trial, provide a soapbox for al-Qaeda's anti-American bile, and create a public-safety nightmare for New York City.
There is, however, a patent political rationale behind Obama's decision.
The terrorists are clearly committed members of the al-Qaeda conspiracy to wage a terrorist war against the United States -- so much so that KSM cannot help himself, bragging about his atrocities against our country, including the 9/11 massacre of nearly 3,000 Americans. Further, controversy surrounds the intelligence-collection measures used by the Bush administration after 9/11 -- measures such as enhanced interrogation that, though they saved countless lives, have been stridently condemned by the antiwar Left. This antiwar Left, President Obama's base, has demanded investigations and prosecutions against Bush officials.
The Obama Justice Department teems with experienced defense lawyers, many of whom (themselves personally or through their firms) spent the last eight years volunteering their services to America's enemies in their lawsuits against the American people. As experienced defense lawyers well know, when there is no mystery about whether the defendants have committed the charged offenses, and when there is controversy attendant to the government's investigative tactics, the standard defense strategy is to put the government on trial.
That is, Pres. Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, experienced litigators, fully realize that in civilian court, the Qaeda quintet can and will demand discovery of mountains of government intelligence. They will demand disclosures about investigative tactics; the methods and sources by which intelligence has been obtained; the witnesses from the intelligence community, the military, and law enforcement who interrogated witnesses, conducted searches, secretly intercepted enemy communications, and employed other investigative techniques. They will attempt to compel testimony from officials who formulated U.S. counterterrorism strategy, in addition to U.S. and foreign intelligence officers. As civilian "defendants," these war criminals will put Bush-era counterterrorism tactics under the brightest public spotlight in American legal history.
Read more at National Review
Posted in Obama Nation, Terrorism | Permalink
Comments
I don't understand the need to close Guitmo and don't think we need to do so. I think we should leave them all in Cuba.
Posted by: Lawrence @ CRB | November 17, 2009 8:06 AM
