AS EXPECTED, THE CONSERVATIVES ARE STILL ACTING LIKE SCARED LITTLE CHILDREN

Charles Krauthammer at the Washington Post has already assumed that the 9/11 Mastermind trial in New York will be the terrorist's "Broadway Stage". He ignores that it was the Bush Administration´s Gitmo, Abu Ghraib and prison torture that has made this American "show-trial" even necessary.

...conservative columnist, Charles Krauthammer

After I wrote (for the very first time ever), a positive response to Mr. Krauthammer´s recent article on the attacks at Fort Hood, now he goes and puts himself back where he and the other conservatives belong. He is back to acting like all those Republicans in Congress that are "quaking in their boots" at the thought of bringing the 9/11 masterminds for a New York City civilian trial. All this noise is just now occurring, after the terrorists were held by the Bush-Cheney Team without charges for all those years at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center (Gitmo).

The reality is that the GOP just doesn´t want all of the Bush Administration´s many torture and "Waterboarding" issues with the detainees to be continually paraded in full-view. This is all especially a problem for the Republicans with the up-coming mid-term 2010 US elections being less than a year away.

Mr. K-hammer and the GOP are also "true-to-form" at continuing to be the "War-Monger Hawks" that started and supported an unnecessary war in Iraq that did nothing but cost tens of thousands of lives, both theirs and ours, and trillions of US tax-payer dollars.

During that time, "Bush and Company" single-handedly succeeded in pissing-off most of the world, including other neutral Muslim countries. These nations had mostly had a previous view of the only remaining world super-power, the United States of America, as still being a "Fair & Balanced" nation.

The Obama Administration´s Justice Department is now attempting to strictly follow US law, while overcoming America´s bad world-wide reputation that was previously sponsored by the conservatives and the Bush-Cheney administration.

Now, Mr. K-hammer is concerned that the self-proclaimed 9/11 architect, Khalid Sheik Mohammed is going to use this opportunity "to proclaim the glory of jihad and the criminality of infidel America". (BTW: I refuse to use the conservative´s and the media´s acronym of "KSM" in place of the terrorist´s real name. This just gives Khalid special "media celebrity-name" initials. And Khalid is no "JFK, FDR or LBJ")

Per Mr. K-hammer: "A decade later, the deed [9/11] will be given voice. Khalid Sheik Mohammed has gratuitously been presented with the greatest propaganda platform imaginable -- a civilian trial in the media capital of the world." K-hammer specifically ignores the fact that the trial also allows the United States to present this terrorist for what he is, what he has done and to show the world that his kind wants to kill anyone (not just Americans) that are NOT of his faith.

In addition, the terrorist trial will show the world that as compared to the "terror-monger" al Qaeda approach, America will be fair to even those that are considered this nation´s #1 foreign enemy. The US Government does not just shoot all the people that don´t believe in America´s religions, morals or values. Unfortunately, Obama´s predecessor and his 2nd in command were apparently more like Mr. K-hammer. Their attitude was to just "shoot-first and don´t bother in asking any further questions".

Mr. K-hammer also wrote that: "…during the civilian New York trial of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers. The prosecution was forced to turn over to the defense a list of 200 unindicted co-conspirators, including the name Osama bin Laden. "Within 10 days, a copy of that list reached bin Laden in Khartoum," wrote former attorney general Michael Mukasey, the presiding judge at that trial, "letting him know that his connection to that case had been discovered."

Much has been learned since that first Trade Center trial. The latest programs and processes for not allowing or for "redacting out" any national security information has been fine-tuned in order to prevent that situation.

Mr. K-hammer also said: "By the time Barack Obama came to office, Khalid was ready to go before a military commission, plead guilty and be executed. It's Obama who blocked a process that would have yielded the swiftest and most certain justice."

Swift justice? And just how many years has this group of terrorists been held at Gitmo? How many times was Khalid Sheik Mohammed "Waterboarded" ? Didn´t I read that it was 183 times? This is their idea of proper American "swift justice"?

I would also like to remind Mr. K-Hammer that regardless of how badly they were treated by the Bush administration, terrorist do not call the shots as to how they will be dealt with while in US custody.

Of course the extremist would readily volunteer to become a Muslim martyr. When one is raised in a poor country that is a Muslim theocracy, becoming a Muslim martyr by being executed by the infidels without a trial is the "wish-come-true" of a captured Muslim extremist.

In fact, that was the exact point that Mr. K-hammer himself made in his article about the recent attack of the Muslin, US Army Dr. Malik Hasan at Fort Hood, Texas. K-hammer had speculated that the attack at Fort Hood was Hasan´s attempt at an "acceptable" Muslim suicide (for Muslim martyrdom) by dying while attacking the infidels.

And as expected, Mr. K-hammer says that Khalid doesn´t deserve a "trial-by-jury" and he uses the Republican argument for having a military tribunal at Gitmo instead of a civilian trial. As with the House Minority Leader John Boehner and other Republicans in Congress, they continue to ignore the facts about a military versus a civilian trial.

The facts are: The US Civilian Justice System has already tried and found guilty 195 terrorists and they are currently housed in various "Maximum Security Prisons" around the country. There have only been 3 military tribunals to date at Gitmo, and the Bush administration had already released 520 detainees before the end of 2008. Unfortunately, a number of these previous Gitmo prisoners have since returned to fighting in the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and even Pakistan.

The reason for having these civilian trials is very fundamental.

The United States was not at war when the 9/11 attacks occurred. Just as with the first attack on the Twin Towers, a terrorist attack is a criminal act, not a military issue. The prisoners were not captured by military personnel. They were arrested by the CIA and FBI personnel on foreign soil. In addition, war cannot be declared on a group such as al Qaeda. Wars are between nations, not groups or individuals. That is the law as stated in the US Constitution.

In addition to all this, it is common knowledge that a good lawyer won´t ask a question of a witness without already knowing what the answer will be. The US Justice Department would also not consider bringing these individuals to a civilian jury trial without having an over-abundance of all of the required evidence needed to win. They already have proven that with 195 wins over US terrorists in civilian trials.

Mr. K-hammer then tries to compare the possible outcome of this Khalid Sheik Mohammed trial to the ill-fated past "trial of the century" of O.J. Simpson. I do not foresee that the whole US Justice Department will screw up as did the L.A. Police Department and the L.A. District Attorney. In addition, these L.A. officials were totally mistrusted by a number the local citizens sitting on the O.J. Simpson jury. And besides, as I said, the justice department already has the experience of almost 200 wins against other Muslim terrorists.

Yes, Mr. Krauthammer has certainly gotten back to his highly conservative negative self.

Copyright G.Ater 2009

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