Andrew McCarthy has an OpEd in The New York Daily News regarding the decision to bring KSM to New York for trial. I consider McCarthy a worthy source on this subject as he was one of the prosecutors on the Blind Sheikh trial in 1995.McCarthy argues against this move for the same reason I have been trying to convey. He says "The problem on this ride is not the destination; it's the journey."
That's exactly why this is such a bad decision. The left keeps accusing opponents of this decision of "having no faith" in the American justice system. That is NOT the case. Nobody doubts that a conviction can be obtained. Well, barring a crazy, off the reservation kind of judge who decides to "go rouge" and throw out everything.
No, the problem is what will be revealed in the mean time. We're still at war. We still have American soldiers in harm's way fighting this enemy every single day. We're putting them at risk by turning over our intelligence gathering secrets and information to KSM and his attorneys.
McCarthy points out:
Now, our enemies will be given a full-blown civilian trial with all the rights of the American citizens they are sworn to kill. They will get a year or more to sift through our national defense secrets. They will have wide latitude to turn the case into a trial of the Bush administration - publicizing information about anti-terrorism tactics that leftist lawyers will exploit in their quest for war crimes prosecutions in foreign courts against current and former U.S. officials.
As these guys had already confessed and had asked for the death penalty in a military commission, why back up and start all over in a civilian court? You must ask why, ALWAYS, with Obama.
In a military trial, McCarthy says, "we could have denied them access to classified information, forcing them to accept military lawyers with security clearances who could see such intelligence but not share it with our enemies."
Holder and the Obama administration are knowingly putting American citizens, national security, and American soldiers under undue risk.
Even worse, it sends a message to other terrorists out there that "If you kill thousands of civilians, we will give you better rights than if you attack military assets. That is dangerously irresponsible."
Why?
2 comments:
Frankly I do have much less faith in the American justice system than I had 15 or 20 years ago. I have come to feel that too many judges have few principles outside of left wing political correctness. The Attorney General is an essential part of the justice system. Military courts are also part of our justice system. The proper functioning of the system depends on the AG to make sensible and nonpolitical decisions about which cases to try in the military system (where more due process would be afforded defendants than in most of the world). The AG has demonstrated that he is not capable of making sensible and nonpolitical judgments. His testimony before congress shows that he probably does not even begin to understand his decision and its consequences. Any realistic person has to have grave doubts about the American justice system after seeing Holder in action.
Everything is orchestrated and the real conductor is no where to be seen.
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