WTF? KSM coming to New York to stand civil trial
From John M. O'Hara writing at Breitbart's
Big Government:
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: Terror Trials in the Big Apple
It is a Friday and President Obama is abroad. What better time for the President and the Department of Justice to announce that 9/11 coordinator Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and some of his fellow terrorists will be tried in a civilian court in New York City?
Yesterday, I wrote about the curious connection that major Obama and ACORN supporter Bruce Ratner has to the Department of Justice � the very department that refuses to initiate a criminal trial of ACORN. It just so happens that Bruce Ratner�s brother, Michael Ratner, shares the terrorist coddling sympathies of Attorney General Eric Holder. As Michelle Malkin documents, Holder not only pushed for the pardoning of actual terrorists in his last stint at DOJ, but he was also a senior partner at a law firm representing detainees at Guantanamo. While Michael Ratner has not represented Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, he did represent a handful of terrorists and won them the right to challenge their detention in U.S. courts under habeas corpus. This is just one of many legal �victories� that have paved the way for folks like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to be tried in civilian court on our soil.
Couple of thoughts...
There already is a very nice courthouse at
Guantanamo purpose-built for dealing with these terrorists.
The citizens of New York City have been through enough -- what with the original 9/11, the US Air Force
buzzing the city for a "photo op", there was that Afghani man who was plotting to bomb the NYC subway system. Bringing KSM to NYC will cause a major increase in terrorist attempts.
From a legal standpoint, KSM was an enemy combatant and was not arrested as a civil criminal. The breach between the two systems offers many avenues for charges to be dismissed on technicalities.
Other thoughts are on the discovery process -- KSM's lawyers can ask for classified materials that, when made public, can seriously hurt our efforts -- names of resources, groups that are being infiltrated, etc...
The article mentions how Attorney General Eric Holder was instrumental in
pardoning sixteen Puerto Rican terrorists. The link in the previous sentence describes these perfect little angels:
The 16 members of the FALN (the Spanish acronym for Armed Forces of National Liberation) and Los Macheteros had been convicted in Chicago and Hartford variously of bank robbery, possession of explosives and participating in a seditious conspiracy. Overall, the two groups had been linked by the FBI to more than 130 bombings, several armed robberies, six slayings and hundreds of injuries.
There already is an
online petition to the White House although a well-written physical snail-mail letter carries a lot more weight than yet another bit of electronic fluff. Getting in touch with your representatives is not the route to go for this one -- you either need to write the
White House or the
Office of the Attorney General.
And, oh yeah, this little bit of conflict of interest:
From the website of
Covington & Burling LLP:
and from
a different page:
Even though Holder is no longer a full partner, shouldn't this be grounds for recusal?
Posted by DaveH at November 13, 2009 7:05 PM