Bad Idea.
Forty hours after the news that Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his cronies removed from GITMO to NYC to be tried at Foley Square in a Federal Court, the buzz is getting louder and more political in the Big Apple. Rudy Giuliani says bad idea, "This confirms my worst expectations for the Obama administration, that they would be in denial with regard the danger of Islamic terrorism." Mike Bloomberg says it is less than a bad idea but somehow does not argue that it is a good idea,since Bloomberg does not do ideology or partisanship. Former Attny General Mike Mukasey says bad idea, very bad idea. Congressman Peter King remarks, "This is as bad a decision as any president ever made."
KSM Speaks.
Ed Hayes told me Saturday 14 that the decision to move the KSM trial to New York is fraught with risk. The first risk is that the five of the cronies will be tried together, and one or more of them may escape conviction because of the abuse scenario at GITMO the last seven years. Another risk is that KSM will likely use the rial as a forum for his sadistic rubbish and whip up the jihadist groupies worldwide with exaggerated claims of being a hero for Islam who did no different than the American generals and presidents who bomb innocents overseas -- the kind of facile moral equivalency that usually excites the genius mass-murders of the world. Another risk is that the jihadists will launch a terror attack on New York. Ed Hayes regards this attack scenario as most credible. Ed Hayes also believes that the families of the 9-11 dead will be a major factor in the drama of the trial in New York. Ed believes that moving the trial from New York makes sense -- similar to McVeigh's trial moved from Oklahoma to Denver -- but is uncertain that it will happen. Ed mentioned that the defense counsel will face the dilemma of deciding if they should cooperate in KSM's possible exploitation and manipulation of the trial. Ed's sharpest concern is that the evidence int he trial will have the taint of being a product of torture, and that in the eliciting of the details of the water-boarding, the defense will both create sympathy for the accused and also put the United States on trial to the Ummah and Europe and Asia.
Intelligence Risk.
There is an additional risk that it hard to judge in that KSM and his four were detained and interrogated using unknown sources from many directions. KSM was grabbed in Pakistan by unknown agents and transported without known legal authority by US forces to be incarcerated without any known legal rights for seven years. There looks to be a mountain of information built up over this time that KSM's defense counsel could reasonably expect to examine. This is a death penalty case. Perhaps KSM will do the favor of pleading guilty for himself and his cronies (which he did last December in a military court hearing at GITMO) and then sit down and vegetate. Seems unlikely, but he might. Perhaps the Obama administration will get lucky and the trial will last two weeks in February and will go away by Mardi Gras. Perhaps all those NYPD on overtime will enjoy the hours.
In an earlier thread, I listed some of the institutions - the pillars of America - that Obama's Left has destroyed or is in the process of destroying. As is so often the case, the most obvious example – the elephant in the room, particularly as it relates to this story - escaped me: American jurisprudence.
Remember, the circus that O.J.'s trial engendered? Remember the fallout? The damage to race relations; credibility? This trial has the potential to do all this and more. Picture the towers of buildings collapsing in dust and smoke. Now shift your minds to consider an abstract version of same: the collapse of the sundry institutions that have served our country so well for so long.
Not in his wildest dreams could KSM have expected that his plan would work so well; that we ourselves would hand him the nails to secure the lid on America's coffin.
http://peterkoelliker.blogspot.com/
A very, very, very BAD IDEA!
I've already sent e-mails to Chuck and Anthony my Senior Senator and Congressman. Also to Ray Kelly, NYPD Commissioner who is quoted as saying he and the NYPD, God Bless them All, will keep me and the rest of the city safe from any Islamic extremist blood letting. As in my e-mail to him, "I say Fort Hood"
How will the City carry on if this very, very, very bad idea comes to pass, NYC will muddle through, but easily spooked. Just remember what happened with that low flying 747 pursued by two fighter jets flying pass the Statue of Liberty(Winter 2009). It set off a panic and at least one guy in the White House loss his job.
FYI - apparently new location for Gitmo detainees will be in Illinois. See a pattern developing here? Foist this Obama foolishness, recklessness on Blue States.
M Whelan Brooklyn NY
May be the best thing to do would be to let him go at ground zero and give NYers 30 minutes advanced notice.
And yes it is a bad idea to have the trial there, hence my last post. May be they could have it at the Capitol? Congress is always looking to mug the camera.
Over the eight years since 9/11, two NYS governors, two NJ governors, Mayor Bloomberg, the Port Authority Board, a fat-cat landlord, and a whole raft of business leaders and community groups have been unable to rebuild Ground Zero and revitalize Lower Manhattan. But now, thanks to the New Messiah, Barack Hussein Obama and his morally illiterate AG Eric Holder, this disgrace will finally be redeemed. The impending civil trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and comrades will reinvent Lower Manhattan as an amusement park -- Jihadi World! Picture it: against the skeletal backdrop of radical Islam's greatest victory over America, 9/11, KSM and the boys will enact many an exciting living exhibit of Muslim victimhood, US brutality and arrogance, etc., much to the edification of the so-called "world community." There will even be a happy ending -- the acquittal of KSM and Company, not only a joy in itself for "the world," but also further proof of the steady slide of the West, especailly the US Great Satan, into self-celebrated impotence and dhimmitude. Which means that the the final and most amazing exhibit at Jihadi World will soon be the Ummah Pavilion.
Folks, the precedent of the Blind Sheik's trial back in "94" allows this incredibly short sighted decision to validated. - the thought process remains- well that succeeded didn't it? This is apples and oranges folks . . . the 1st Event WTC BOMBING in "93"., as tragic as it was (and untellingly suggesting the second) - was not the event that brought the US population to recognize a war was being conducted against it.
9/11 was an act of War period. Despite anti war pundits still searching for the official declaration of War- As an act of war, this trial belongs in the military tribunals.
Review the way FDR handled the German saboteurs in "42" -There was no question on the direction to pursue
NO ONE RIDING A SUBWAY WILL FEEL SAFE WHILE THIS TRIAL IS ON.
Or at Grand Central, Penn Station or the Port Authority. Not to mention the tunnels, bridges or, for that matter, anywhere.
Sure, a huge police presence can protect the Federal courthouse -- but that will make much
less police available for the rest of NY and make the rest of NY that much more vulnerable.
These Washington idiots weren't in NY at the time of the attack. They have no idea what emotions
they're stirring up.
Yes, it's OJ all over again. And what made the OJ trial a disaster was the politically motivated choice of venue.
If an agent of America's enemy in this conflict was placed in the White House, how would he behave differently from how Obama is behaving?
Is this not giving aid an comfort to the enemy?
Obama has distanced himself from the decision, leaving Holder to twist in the breeze here, but make no mistake that this is a foreign policy and national security issue that lands on the desk of the Commander in Chief.
Let me be the first to call this move what it is - Treason.
Whatever other objections people may have to the trial being held in NYC, fear of reprisal should not be one of them. I said at the time of 9/11, when they sent people home from work and shut down the airports, "The terrorists have already won". Only when we can live without fear of death can we claim victory over these people. Isn't it obvious? The advantage they have over us is not intelligence (please don't make me laugh), money, spirit, or anything else. The single, sole advantage they have is that we're all much too afraid of dying, and they're not. So, I give credit to Holder and Obama for having the stones to put this right in the center of the maelstrom. Ground zero. Like a great big loud "Kiss My Grits" to terrorists around the world.
Now, having said all that, I'd still prefer to just line 'em all up in a row and shoot 'em with a single bullet to save time and money. We could have Barney Frank and Charlie Rangell dig a large, shallow grave to put the bodies in, just so they know what a day's work feels like.
At what point will the Obama White house release the Jihadis? How many hostages will need to be taken?
Very dangerous decision, just begging for Al Qaeda intervention.
So lay a trap for al Qaeda, and use the detainees as bait. When they come to rescue them or avenge them, spring the trap and kill them all.
Muslim hostage takers typically work abroad. Look at what happened the last time a Democrat President tried to rescue hostages. Can we patrol the Indian Ocean, The Mediterranean, and parts of the Pacific for Hijackers and Hostage takers?
Who called it.
It's not that they haven't been able to do it, it is that they have prevented it. They want it to go away. All they care about is money. I for one would have liked to see the towers rebuilt.
Jim,
do you mean like this?
http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/funnypictures/ig/100-Funny-Pictures/New-World-Trade-Center.htm
That's one way. :) Being a native NYer, I like it, but I think building them back the same way the were is the same thing. I have to wonder if Rudy was in charge that it would be the way it is in NY on so many levels. Bloomberg is reprehensible...
Jim Lagnese:
My use of the word "unable" was not meant to absolve that whole cast of clowns from the infamy of their so-called "re-development" of Lower Manhattan, but only to convey that their continuing failure is a total obscenity no matter what their reasons may be. Now check out Mayor Bloomie's immediate enthusiasm for bringing this show trial to Lower Manhattan, expressing his "complete confidence" in the NYPD to provide security. Mr. Mayor, lack of confidence in the NYPD is not the issue, it is the continuing politicization of 9/11 and all that has happened -- and not happened -- in Lower Manhattan by yourself and others for eight long years. And now Obama and Holder are bringing Jihadi World to your city, and all you can say is "great idea!" The Bloomster has just unwittingly made the case for why he should have respected the local term limits law and eschewed a third term.
Bloomberg wants the trial in NYC because it means more money for the city, which is facing budget constraints. With the trial in the city, he will shakedown the Feds for additional funding for security.
Holder did not know the or rather was not able to reference any legal precedence. Purely a political move...and Holder does not have the authority over DoD to do this...anyone who knows anything about Government knows it would involve someone higher than agency heads. Paper and signatures would be processed...you just don't hand over enemy combatants like this...MSMs should do a FOIA request. Yeah like that would happen.