Monday, November 16, 2009
Dereliction Of Duty
The WaPo reports that Attorney General Eric Holder's reason for bringing KSM and co. to New York for a civilian trial rather than keeping them in Gitmo for a military tribunal is that 9/11 was an attack on American soil against American civilians. He "supports" this argument by pointing out that he is trying the Cole attackers under the military system because the USS Cole was a military target, ergo an attack on civilians should be prosecuted in a civilian court. Got that?
Now. Holder's rationale completely ignores the fact that the targets of the 9/11 and Cole attacks are irrelevant, as both acts constitute war crimes for which military tribunals are specifically designed to mete out appropriate punishment under U.S. sovereign law as endorsed by the Supreme Court. There is nothing in the nature of military tribunals that denies KSM or any other captured illegal enemy combatant every protection to which they are entitled under U.S. military laws and the Geneva Conventions.
Another rationale employed in defense of this abomination is that only a civilian trial incorporating full Constitutional protections can demonstrate America's commitment to its own high standards of fairness and decency. Baloney. Americans don't need this insane business to prove their justice system's integrity to anyone anywhere. Only in the minds of "progressives" like Holder and his boss Obama does America's soul need such "purging" from its past sins (under Bush - always remember, this is about the Bush administration).
Whaadever. Even ignoring all that - hell, let's even buy into all that insanely flawed reasoning, lock, stock and barrel. Doesn't matter - the whole scheme is still spectacularly idiotic and dangerous, and the reason is as plain as day: any terrorist wanting to exact the absolute maximum damage from any plan will from now on only mount attacks inside the United States against civilian targets. That is what President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder are telling them to do by this very decision.
It's only logical: in Obama's America, an attack on an American military target guarantees a military tribunal away from the public eye, whereas an attack on American soil causing civilian casualties will, at least until the end of Obama's first term, guarantee not only a drawn-out civilian trial replete with the full range of Constitutional protections, but also a wide range of means, completely funded by American taxpayers including the families of your victims, for mocking America, glorifying Islam and likely even recruiting more jihadists from inside the American prison system, which is already infested with radical Islamists.
Because Holder's decision could not have been made without full presidential approval, it is no stretch at all to charge Barack Obama with the most dangerous dereliction of duty to the Constitution and his fellow Americans by any president perhaps in American history.
Now. Holder's rationale completely ignores the fact that the targets of the 9/11 and Cole attacks are irrelevant, as both acts constitute war crimes for which military tribunals are specifically designed to mete out appropriate punishment under U.S. sovereign law as endorsed by the Supreme Court. There is nothing in the nature of military tribunals that denies KSM or any other captured illegal enemy combatant every protection to which they are entitled under U.S. military laws and the Geneva Conventions.
Another rationale employed in defense of this abomination is that only a civilian trial incorporating full Constitutional protections can demonstrate America's commitment to its own high standards of fairness and decency. Baloney. Americans don't need this insane business to prove their justice system's integrity to anyone anywhere. Only in the minds of "progressives" like Holder and his boss Obama does America's soul need such "purging" from its past sins (under Bush - always remember, this is about the Bush administration).
Whaadever. Even ignoring all that - hell, let's even buy into all that insanely flawed reasoning, lock, stock and barrel. Doesn't matter - the whole scheme is still spectacularly idiotic and dangerous, and the reason is as plain as day: any terrorist wanting to exact the absolute maximum damage from any plan will from now on only mount attacks inside the United States against civilian targets. That is what President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder are telling them to do by this very decision.
It's only logical: in Obama's America, an attack on an American military target guarantees a military tribunal away from the public eye, whereas an attack on American soil causing civilian casualties will, at least until the end of Obama's first term, guarantee not only a drawn-out civilian trial replete with the full range of Constitutional protections, but also a wide range of means, completely funded by American taxpayers including the families of your victims, for mocking America, glorifying Islam and likely even recruiting more jihadists from inside the American prison system, which is already infested with radical Islamists.
Because Holder's decision could not have been made without full presidential approval, it is no stretch at all to charge Barack Obama with the most dangerous dereliction of duty to the Constitution and his fellow Americans by any president perhaps in American history.
