Friday, November 20, 2009

Terrorist Trial in Federal Court

The Obama administration has decided that they they will try the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on the United States, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed or KSM, in Federal Court in New York. Side note here - I am guessing a change of venue will be the first request by the defense team. In any case, this is unprecedented territory. By what stretch of the imagination does this administration believe that this terrorist is due the rights afforded to citizens and residents of this country? What evidence won't be admitted because we failed to "Mirandize" KSM prior to his interrogation? What other evidence won't be admitted based on the already acknowledged intense interrogation techniques that were employed? In our court system the accused has the right to face their accusers. Will we have to trot out a long line of what will then be formerly undercover CIA operatives to afford KSM this "right"? The Supreme Court has ruled in the past that trials such as these can and should be conducted by a military tribunal and there are several examples in our history such as when we captured eight Germans during who were landed on our shores by a U-Boat. In the legal arena "precedence" is everything. By trying KSM in our federal court system, we are setting the precedence that terrorists are criminals and not enemy combatants. We are conceding them rights to which they are not entitled. Our illustrious Attorney General, Eric Holder, believes he can win this case without any of the evidence obtained through interrogation of KSM. Let's hope he is right. Many a guilty person has gone free in our legal system because of a technical slip up. I am praying we don't make any mistakes on this one. Does it bother anybody besides me that the taxpayers of this great country are going to have to spend millions of dollars not in the prosecution of KSM but in funding his legal defense team?

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