I am with Pat on this one.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=116268
What is the Centrist position? Have the trial in New Jersey? :)
// Lennart
Is America at war, or not?
Are we at war – or not?
For if we are at war, why is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed headed for trial in
federal court in the Southern District of New York? Why is he entitled to a
presumption of innocence and all of the constitutional protections of a U.S.
citizen?
Is it possible we have done an injustice to this man by keeping him locked
up all these years without trial? For that is what this trial implies – that
he may not be guilty.
And if we must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that KSM was complicit in
mass murder, by what right do we send Predators and Special Forces to kill
his al-Qaida comrades wherever we find them? For none of them has been
granted a fair trial.
When the Justice Department sets up a task force to wage war on a crime
organization like the Mafia or MS-13, no U.S. official has a right to shoot
Mafia or gang members on sight. No one has a right to bomb their homes. No
one has a right to regard the possible death of their wives and children in
an attack as acceptable collateral damage.
Yet that is what we do to al-Qaida, to which KSM belongs.
We conduct those strikes in good conscience because we believe we are at
war. But if we are at war, what is KSM doing in a U.S. court?
Minoru Genda, who planned the attack on Pearl Harbor, a naval base on U.S.
soil, when America was at peace, and killed nearly as many Americans as the
Sept. 11 hijackers, was not brought here for trial. He was an enemy
combatant under the Geneva Conventions and treated as such.
When Maj. Andre, the British spy and collaborator of Benedict Arnold, was
captured, he got a military tribunal, after which he was hanged. When Gen.
Andrew Jackson captured two British subjects in Spanish Florida aiding
renegade Indians, Jackson had both tried and hanged on the spot.
Enemy soldiers who commit atrocities are not sent to the United States for
trial. Under the Geneva Conventions, soldiers who commit atrocities are shot
when caught.
When and where did Khalid Sheikh Mohammed acquire his right to a trial by a
jury of his peers in a U.S. court?
When John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln, alleged collaborators like Mary
Surratt were tried before a military tribunal and hanged at Fort McNair.
When eight German saboteurs were caught in 1942 after being put ashore by
U-boat, they were tried in secret before a military commission and executed,
with the approval of the Supreme Court. What makes KSM special?
Is the Obama administration aware of what it is risking by not turning KSM
over to a military tribunal in Guantanamo?
How does Justice handle a defense demand for a change of venue, far from
lower Manhattan, where the jury pool was most deeply traumatized by Sept.
11? Would not KSM and his co-defendants, if a change of venue is denied,
have a powerful argument for overturning any conviction on appeal?
Were not KSM's Miranda rights impinged when he was not only not told he
could have a lawyer on capture, but told that his family would be killed and
he would be waterboarded if he refused to talk?
And if all the evidence against the five defendants comes from other than
their own testimony under duress, do not their lawyers have a right to know
when, where, how and from whom Justice got the evidence to prosecute them?
Does KSM have the right to confront all witnesses against him, even if they
are al-Qaida turncoats or U.S. spies still transmitting information to U.S.
intelligence?
There have been reports that in the trials of those convicted in the first
World Trade Center bombing, sources and methods were compromised, weakening
our security for the second attack on Sept. 11.
If the trial is held in lower Manhattan, how much security will be needed to
protect against a car bomber who wants the world to see a mighty blow struck
against the Great Satan? And if, as some suggest, the trial should be held
on Governors Island, would that not make the United States look like a
nation under siege?
What do we do if the case against KSM is thrown out because the government
refuses to reveal sources or methods, or if he gets a hung jury, or is
acquitted, or has his conviction overturned?
In America, trials often become games, where the prosecution, though it has
truth on its side, loses because it inadvertently breaks one of the rules.
The Obamaites had best pray that does not happen, for they may be betting
his presidency on the outcome of the game about to begin.
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