Mohammed Wants All Americans Dead
So, the so-called 9-11 Gang of Five will go on trial in a federal court as opposed to before a military commission. The bottom line question then has to be: Are you ready for the possibility that Khalid Sheik Mohammed or any of his fellow collaborators might walk free on a sly defense attorney’s manipulation of our system?
Don’t think it couldn’t happen.
Millionaire Robert Durst walked free even after he admitted to murdering a neighbor. In my opinion O.J. Simpson got a free pass too after taking the lives of his ex-wife, Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman. I could cite other cases in which juries, again in my opinion, did not come to the right conclusion. Take it from me it happens.
As you sit reading this column there are American lawyers preparing and strategizing right now on how they might secure the freedom of …… Mohammed, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abd Al-Aziz Ali, Mustafa Ahmad Al-Hawsawi and Waleed Bin Attash. This, after Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM) has repeatedly proclaimed he was the mastermind who planned the attacks on
September 11, 2001, New York City
America that claimed nearly 3000 lives that horrible day in September 2001. KSM gleefully brags about hating and murdering Americans. His followers, some of whom will be in court with him, do the same. This is what they live for – to kill us – and to go down in history as martyrs.
Let me be perfectly clear about why I think these trials should have been conducted in a military court.
September 11, 2001 was not the beginning of some temporary crime wave. What happened at the World Trade Towers, the Pentagon and over the skies of Pennsylvania wasn’t just a criminal act – it was an act of war. Don’t be fooled just because these terrorists don’t wear proper military uniforms. These men, who will go on trial in New York soon, aren’t mere criminals. They are enemy combatants and should be treated as the soldiers they are.
Being brought before a civilian court these men will be afforded all the rights and privileges they excoriate America for. The fact that ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ (read that: water boarding) was used on some of them as our agents tried to extract vital information will be used as a reason to try to toss out crucial evidence. Their long detention in secret locations and then at Guantanamo Bay will surely be highlighted as their defense attorneys try to play the “poor-them” card. And it goes without saying these defendants will try to use our open justice system as a platform to spew their warped sense of how the world should be. Even with the most diligent judge at the helm there will most likely be anti-American outbursts in the courtroom. Their free-of-charge American lawyers, will stage-manage the system toward mistrial by demanding classified information be released to “prove their case.”
Never Forget
America will bend over backward and spend multiple millions of dollars to demonstrate we can stage a secure and fair trial for even our most vilified enemies. We’ll hire the accused the best available lawyers and some believe this will show the rest of the world we are virtuous people. But guess what? The radical Muslim world will still call us “The Great Satan” and worse.
I have to wonder how any American defense attorney could feel comfortable taking such a case so I called my friend Mickey Sherman who wrote a book entitled, “How Can You Defend Those People?” As a defense lawyer Sherman firmly believes every human being deserves good representation in court no matter what they’ve done. But even he admitted to me he would
Defense Attorney Mickey Sherman
never agree to go to court with these terror loving jihadists. He called the Gang of Five “the defendants we love to hate.” Sherman believes any lawyer that takes one of the terrorist cases will be vilified and do permanent damage to both their professional and personal life.
Defense Attorney Ron Kuby, never a man to shy away from representing controversial figures (he practiced with the late William Kuntsler), calls the whole trial process into question. “KSM has been standing before a military commission admitting he did it, saying he wants the government to kill him. The government wants to kill him. The mockery comes,” according to
Attorney Ron Kuby
Kuby, “because the military commission didn’t accept the guilty plea in the first place…the trial becomes a long form of assisted suicide.”
In the end the defendants will likely be glad to admit in civilian court what they did and say they are ready to die. The question then becomes what does the court do? Does it give the terrorists what they want most in life – death? Or are they sentenced to what I see as their worst nightmare – life – in an American maximum security prison?
I say give them life.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
ABQ Journal Reader David S. writes:
“In your interesting editorial “Will Civilian Trial Get The Job Done?”, you left out a third alternative punishment for the terrorists, namely serving some time in super-max and then being traded for oil – the Scottish approach.”
ABQ Journal William D. writes:
” Denying accused terrorists their right to a trial like any other accused criminal only plays into the hands of our enemies who claim falsely that the U.S. is anti-Muslim and anti-Arab. If these suspects are genuinely guilty, then the Bush Administration would have had no trouble eight years ago in persuading a jury to hand down guilty verdicts with the maximum penalty in a civilian court of law. On the basis of the serious charges against the defendants, it would be no trouble to deny them bail while awaiting their trial. By holding these suspects for so long without charging them with anything is tantamount to admitting they are innocent and that the U.S. government does not want to admit error. Before closing, you or I might find ourselves falsely accused of the terrorist acts that these defendants are facing. If you were innocent and held without being told of the charges against you, you would be justifiably angry at being denied your rights to due process. Moreover, if we deny due process and allow the use of false confessions extracted under torture, then an enemy who captures U.S. citizens could play the same game on our own people. That’s something for all of us to think about before we get smug.”
William:
I was in no way saying we should deny the terrorists a trial. The question is: what is the best venue in which to try them? I believe it is in a military setting.
The reason these terrorists were held so long is that they were considered enemy combatants by the Bush Administration. As such they are allowed under the internationally recognized rules of war to be held indefinitely as long as the conflict/war continues. The war on terror is not over.
No where in the column was I suggesting denying anyone due process. ~ DD
Facebook Friend Simone C. writes:
“Yes, hang them! and strap them to a helicopter and fly them around so we can show America we gave them what they want!”
Facebook Friend Dian C. writes:
“I believe they are already considered martyrs… I also believe that they are evil and full of hate… I vote for accommodating their wishes… Besides, why should we pay to take care of them for the rest of their natural lives???”
Facebook friend Michele W. writes:
“Never let them walk free! As a former New Yorker I witnessed the aftermath of this horrific act of terrorism. Therefore, let the Federal Government decide their fate. I pray they will not be free,that would be a travesty of justice.”
Facebook Friend Henry W. writes:
“Yes I think we should accomadate all Muslim extremists. Fry em all! The better choice was the military tribunal for obvious reasons.”
Facebook Friend Avari writes:
“I say sentencing to life – and make them live among the rest of the prison population – then maybe some of them end up as another prisoner’s b**ch.”
Facebook Friend Henry W. responds
“They’d enjoy that too much.. but if you’re paying the bill I guess I could live with it. As long as it was taped for a reality TV show. “Jihad in the Big House” Yeah I like that. Just bought the domain. Gotta keep building the empire.”
DD Web site Reader Alan B. writes:
” VOTE:
Life imprisonment with hard labor, daily. No free ride.”
Any lawyer that thinks or acts like these blankety-blanks had a right to do what they did on 9/11/o1 really needs to have his @$$ kicked. And the afterbirths that claim to have done this masterminding? Give them the death penalty, by all means. We humans don’t really have to know that we got even…God Almighty will get the last word….believe you me.
Facebook Friend Dan S. writes:
“I believe that forgiving them is God’s function. Our job is to arrange the meeting.”
Giving in to these punks merely legitimizes them. However, letting them live if convicted, obfuscates the American justice system.
We should be trying them in a “military” court and not a court in NYC.
Trying them in NYC gives them just the platform they seek. The circus atmosphere it will create replete with demonstrators, freaks and sympathizers will do more to help propagandize their hatred of America. NYC is the media center of the world and holding these trials there can only dredge up painful memories for those who lost loved ones in the 911 tragedy and prolong what should be a swift concise judicial process.
Michael J. Santullo…
Facebook Friend Jane S. writes:
“The Perception/Propaganda War is at least equally important to win as the military one, so whatever the monetary cost to us of sentencing the 9-11 terrorists to LIFE versus DEATH is worth it. We proclaim our value of life, human rights, the pursuit of peace to the world – we need to show the world we practice what we preach – that we maintain our principles in doling out justice even to the most vile enemies we encounter. Martyrdom for these terrorists is not strategically sound either. If convicted, sentence them to LIFE in prison.”
Facebook Friend B.B. writes:
“No, they should not be sentenced to life in prison and they should not be given a martyrs death. They should be tied to a pole in the middle of a herd of swine, their skin sliced with razor blades, salt poured in the wounds, and then cover in African Army ants to die a slow death that all the world can see. Then let the pigs eat them.”
Could it be that the military courts would not accept their guilty pleas because their actually receiving the death penalty would require the president to personally sign their death warrants? That is what I understand to be the case, but I could be wrong. Also, dead terrorists cannot continue to divulge what they know. I can see how the military might want to try to keep them alive long enough to extract as much info out of them as they can.
I want them dead. I don’t care if justice and what they claim to want happen to match up.
A dead terrorist cannot be used to negotiate by Hamas or Hizb’allah or Iran in exchange for someone we want back (like PFC Bergdahl). It is dangerous to everyone else to negotiate with terrorists and their backers.
I strenuously object to the terrorists being brought here and given American citizen rights. Really, for the longest time now, being an American citizen is nothing special anymore. We keep handing it out to anyone, like cheap candy.
Maybe that’s why Eric Holder thinks it’s no big deal. He thinks our citizenship is worthless.