nankerphelge wrote on Feb 19
th, 2010 at 8:31am:
Here's an interesting article:
So how does that interesting article have any bearing on anything?
Do you vouch for its accuracy?
Who wrote it and when?
nankerphelge wrote on Feb 19
th, 2010 at 8:31am:
When it comes to trying terrorists on American soil since 9/11, let's all work from the same set of facts. This morning we've heard three people in the Sunday shows talking about the "hundreds" of terrorists that we have tried in US courts and hold in US prisons - as if KSM was just some regular Joe terrorist. Some facts:
First, the only civilian trial of a 9/11 terrorist was Moussaoui who was arrested before 9/11 had even happened and before the President had authorized detaining terrorists as enemy combatants.
Second, Moussaoui had his trial while the entire military commission system was under sustained legal attack by left-wing lawyers, which put all military commission trials on hold. So he couldn't have been tried by military commission back then any way.
Third, the trial was a circus largely because the defendant was uncontrollable and used the attention to spout hate against the US; the prosecutors were unfairly accused of misconduct, though the judge gave some credence to the accusations; and they couldn't even get the death penalty even though he eventually admitted he was supposed to be the 20th hijacker. The Moussaoui trial is hardly viewed as a model of success.
Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, never had a trial, as he pleaded guilty. And his arrest was just one month after President Bush authorized detentions of enemy combatants - the system was still being set up. He also could not have been tried by military commission because of the left-wing legal assault on the system.
As for the "hundreds of terrorists" -that figure encompasses every type of terrorism charge DOJ brought in 8 years and have nothing to do with 9/11, nor were any of those people foreign terrorists captured overseas as part of the war on terror. Those terrorists were held at Guantanamo Bay as enemy combatants with the intention of eventually trying them in military commissions.
Ah, see, everyone was using the figures that the Bush DOJ used throughout their tenure. We didn't know that those figures cannot be used for any other purpose than to support Republican talking points. From a 2005 DOJ publication:
"Altogether, the Department has brought charges against 375 individuals in terrorism-related investigations, and has convicted 195 to date. While every component within the Justice family has contributed to the fight against terror, the men and women of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Criminal Division, the U.S. Attorney's Offices, and the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review have led the Department's work to protect America from terror."
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