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It’s one thing to try out a new policy, especially when an existing policy isn’t working. That makes good sense. It’s quite another to dust off an old policy, especially when that policy has already been proven a failure.
This is a fair description of what the Obama administration is doing as it prepares to haul Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other 9/11 terrorists into the U.S. judicial system. We’ve tried this before, and it failed miserably.
Recall that before 9/11, al Qaeda made no secret about its means and motives. Led by Osama bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the terror superpower not only promised to kill Americans, but proved its capacity to do so, again and again. And America, again and again, proved its inability to grasp the nature of the enemy and the threat it posed.
Indeed, from Pan Am 103 to the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 to the embassy attacks in 1998 to the USS Cole attack, administrations from both parties treated bin Laden and his forerunners and followers like a mob family rather than what they are—a motivated and tenacious military adversary. Consider the record:
- In 1993, terrorists linked to bin Laden threw their first blows at the Twin Towers, killing six Americans and injuring 1,000. Washington responded with indictments and prosecutions. Later that year, militiamen trained by al Qaeda shot down a pair of U.S. helicopters and killed 18 U.S. troops in Mogadishu. Washington responded by hastily withdrawing.
- In 1996, Saudi and Lebanese terrorists with links to Hezbollah and al Qaeda collaborated in the bombing of the U.S. military’s Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. The blast claimed 19 airmen and injured 200. Washington responded with indictments and deportations.
- In 1998, al Qaeda bombed a pair of American embassies in Africa, murdering 224 civilians and injuring more than 5,000. Washington responded with an impotent volley of cruise missiles, an indictment of bin Laden and a $5 million bounty.
- Finally, in October 2000, al-Qaeda terrorists used a rubber boat to blast a hole in the USS Cole, killing 17 sailors. Washington responded not by sending troops into Yemen, but FBI agents.
In short, the enemy isn’t impressed or intimidated by the long arm of American justice. As former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White put it in 2002, “Criminal prosecutions are plainly not a sufficient response to international terrorism,” adding that “we plainly need more comprehensive measures and, most especially, a strong and continuing military response.’”
If indictments and legal briefs were effective in combating terrorism, the World Trade Center would still be standing.
Yet Attorney General Eric Holder, without any sense of irony, calls the administration’s decision “a step forward in bringing those we believe were responsible for the 9/11 attacks and the attack on the USS Cole to justice.”
In fact, it’s a step backward, as we will see during the legal circus and grandstanding by our enemies—and the political posturing and score-settling by our fellow citizens—that is sure to surround these trials. Perhaps worst of all, Manhattan will be subjected to yet another kind of assault by the enemy, as al Qaeda uses what could be the most-followed trial in history to put America in the dock.
Holder says he is “confident in the ability of our courts to provide these defendants a fair trial, just as they have for over 200 years.” But that misses the point entirely. This is not about whether America’s justice system is fair; it’s about whether it makes any sense to fight such an enemy with lawyers rather than warriors.
In one sense, the desire—even insistence—of some Americans to prosecute the 9/11 planners rather than prosecute a war is understandable. It’s a reflection of America’s preferred way of settling disputes. Rather than cut off appendages, we ask a judge to garnish wages. Rather than kill each other, we sue each other. Rather than firebomb corrupt corporations, we take them to court. We are a nation of laws and rights. Our system of government is grounded in the rule of law, not in the screeds of a messianic madman. And therein lies the problem: Our courts are designed for administering justice, as we Americans have come to define it, between Americans. They are not for defending the national interest, and they are certainly not for waging war.
Far from being fear-struck by indictments, government findings and judicial decisions, the masterminds of modern terror wear the notoriety as a badge of honor. As bin Laden once bragged after Washington added the Taliban regime of Afghanistan to the list of state-sponsors of terrorism, “This decision is for us a certificate of good conduct for the government of the Taliban, and it acquits them of the accusation of being followers or agents of America.”
According to Holder, “The many Americans who lost friends and relatives in the attacks of September 11, 2001 and on the USS Cole…deserve the opportunity to see the alleged plotters of those attacks held accountable in court.”
I would think that they, like the families of those killed at Pearl Harbor, deserve something more: an assurance that their loved ones didn’t die in vain and that Americans learned a lesson from their immeasurable loss on September 11, 2001.
Alan W. Dowd writes on defense and security issues.
to view a partial list of crimes committed by FBI agents over 1500 pages long see
http://www.forums.signonsandiego.com/showthread...
to view a partial list of FBI agents arrested for pedophilia see
http://www.dallasnews.com/forums/viewtopic.php?...
Every American should see this video !
The ambition of Islam to conquer the world.
For centuries Islam of the militants have been on the march to conquer the world. We did not notice because we chose not to notice. The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in1920 by Hassan al-Banna in Egypt and was in deep confrontation with the Egyptian government. The current goals for Islam to achieve global domination for a Muslim Caliphate: a world under strict Islamic “Sharia” law, pulling Muslims back to the 7th Century.
Consult : http://xrl.us/bf66jj
Acai force max is a weight loss supplement which contains extracts like acai berry fruit and other ingredients that is used for weight reduction and glucose metabolism and balances the blood sugar level.
http://acaiforcemaxformen.com/Free-Trial/
Hey!
Black President in America means not only is the country turned upside down, but the entire chain of being. I say we use this “civilian” trial to show the world that there are two types of justice you can get: the United State's or America's.
Have US court for normal people, and America court for the people who it is basically a show trial for, like KSM or Charles Ng. Use that “court” word literally, and instead of King's Court, they get Clown Court and death handed out by the evil Ronald McDonald.
Why are french fries from McDonalds so tasty yet so toxic? Because when you force fed them to people like KSM they die the worst death possible.
Roaches! Heck. I would rather be the last roach on the cinder heap than the guy the roaches got.
Bring back the guillotine and behead them in a civilised manner,that is something they will respect.
I have decided to form the Free The Gitmo 5 organization to show just how insane this Obama/Holder nightmare is. Free The Gitmo 5!
I do not think this is about justice. It is a ploy to bash the Bush administration once again. Seems that the current administration must have a fall guy for their bad governance.
Bad paradigm I'm afraid. Alan's logic only makes sense when he preaches to the choir. The left isn't failing at all with any of its policies. Do we not see that after 70 years yet? The left isn't trying to defeat Al Qaida. Therefore, the policy of coddling Islamofascists and not dealing with them as a military threat is working well. Once we understand that reality, you see the pointlessness of trying to debate this issue with them. Yet, we keep arguing with these people as if our logic and rational thought applies in their universe. It doesn't.
The name of the game is destroy the West, one brick at a time, using whatever means are necessary. What happens after that is something the left worries about another day.
Given that reality, why don't we just start openly and unabashedly accusing the leftists of treason and aiding and abetting the overthrow of the US? Lets really throw some gasoline on the fire. You know the American people are waiting for someone to do this, because the vast majority of American conservatives already believe the left and Islam are working together. All we need is ONE leader with the testosterone to say the unheard of truth, and we're on the way to fixing this old problem.
I would like to see the Military Justices appeal this arbitrary and reckless change of venue for KSM and his terror gang…directly to the Supreme Court. Surely there is a legal challenge to this decision. The far left AG does not have dictatorial and unlimited legal powers. It's for his decision to be challenged in court. These mass murdering terrorists we captured on foreign soil, are enemy combatants who are responsible for an act of war (the 9/11 mass murders and destruction)…and do not belong in a civil criminal court where they and their ACLU lawyers will be able to delay, continue, object, appeal, call for subpeonas for CIA, military and Dept of Justice individuals, call for discovery of evidence , file more objections, postponements and appeals….The whole concept is a nightmare….for New York, for security and for the American taxpayer…>This trial will cost a fortune. Let them be tried in a miltary tribunal and join Mohammed Atta and the others in Hell.
Another stupid advertisement. How does it feel to post as a stupid huckster on this site? Here's another waste of money for suckers, idiots and easily manipulated consumers.
Are you off your rocker? Eerie Steve….you need help.
Why do you mention the president is black, even though he is half white and also Arab. It is character that is important, not what the color of a person's skin is!
Brave ISRAELI Whistleblower Hunted down in L.A. by SWAT Team.Where is Moshe now?
International Medical Veritas Association
On August 12 Israeli bioscientist Joseph Moshe called the studio of Dr. A. True Ott after a radio talk program. He claimed that tainted H1N1 Swine flu vaccines were being produced by Baxter BioPharma Solutions and said that Baxter’s Ukrainian lab was in fact producing a bioweapon disguised as a vaccine. He claimed that the vaccine contained an adjuvant (additive) designed to weaken the immune system, and replicated RNA from the virus responsible for the 1918 pandemic Spanish flu, causing global sickness and mass death. The next day his standoff with Los Angeles police was televised live.
http://imva.info/index.php/2009/11/imva-emergen...
Plague Released on Purpose?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtMznUZIt00
In what was once the land of the free, telling the truth-warning the public makes you an enemy of the New World Order State.
U.S. Airport Security Deliberately and Shockingly DESTROYED for Islam:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com
Controversial Muslim group
gets VIP airport security tour
Feds show CAIR latest screening steps,
sensitive counterterrorism procedures
August 18, 2006
The Department of Homeland Security
took a Muslim group with known past ties to terror organizations on a VIP tour of security operations at the nation's busiest airport at the same time British authorities were working to break up a plot to blow up U.S. airlines.
On June 21, a senior DHS official from Washington personally guided Muslim officials from the Council on American-Islamic Relations on a behind-the-scenes tour of Customs screening operations at O'Hare International Airport in response to CAIR complaints that Muslim travelers were being unfairly delayed as they entered the U.S. from abroad.
CAIR is a spin-off of the Islamic Association for Palestine, identified by two former FBI counterterrorism chiefs as a “front group” for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
Several CAIR leaders have been convicted on terror-related charges.
During the airport tour, CAIR was taken on a walk through the point-of-entry, Customs stations, secondary screening and interview rooms. In addition, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents were asked to describe for CAIR representatives various features of the high-risk passenger lookout system.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?A...
Council on American-Islamic Relations: “Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.” – Omar Ahmad (CAIR co-founder).
Addressing a youth session at the 1999 Islamic Association for Palestine's annual convention in Chicago, CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) founder Omar Ahmad praised suicide bombers who “kill themselves for Islam,”
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?A...
The American administration (Obama & Holder) despite the admitted deficiencies of international law in this specific context, must know something that no one else knows. They have already guaranteed the outcome. KS Mohammed will be found guilty.
WHY are Ohio Authorities Acting as if America is a MUSLIM NATION where non-Muslims have no rights?
Terrified 17-year-old Rifqa Bary who fled from being honor killed by her family must NEVER be returned to her parents in Ohio! Never sent back to Sri Lanka! Rifqa left Islam and the punishment for leaving Islam is death!
Ohio authorities to whom Rifqa has been returned from Florida where she fled for safety, are punishing frightened Rifqa – not allowing her to use the internet or use the phone! Secretly holding hearings and deliberately isolating this young girl from her friends and the many people who are deeply concerned about her safety and want to help her.
A hearing has been set for Dec. 22nd for the charges filed against Rifqa by her parents for being “unruly” and ungovernable”. It is NOT allowed to leave Islam!
Ohio state has filed no charges against Rifqa's father for his beatings of Rifqa. Has the law been eliminated against parents beating their children, or has the law been re-written that the law applies to everyone except Muslims?
Why are Ohio authorities acting as if America is a Muslim country???
British police and the organizations in Britain who help victims such as Rifqa, would be shocked and horrified at American authorities' cruel treatment of Rifqa.
http://WWW.GUARDIAN.CO.UK
Ending the silence on 'honour killing'
I wish I could get involved with the support groups and help but you know, I'm just a coward.”
Having first walked out of an abusive marriage at the age of 17 and then from a hostile family who had had a meeting to discuss whether or not she should die, Zena does not lack courage but she is still very scared.
She has every reason to be. Her Bangladeshi-born mother had suggested that Zena might be allowed to poison herself rather than be murdered for bringing shame on the family.
“I'm sorry to be so cloak-and-dagger but you never know what they might be capable of, I know there are plenty of young men who would love to play bounty hunter just for a bit of kudos in the community.”
Police estimate at least 12 are dying each year in the UK but others will be hidden – forced suicides and murders made to look like suicide are widely believed to take place undetected. Women aged 16-24 from Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi backgrounds are three times more likely to kill themselves than the national average for that age and it is impossible to tell what pressures some must have been under.
When it opened its helpline in April 2008, Karma Nirvana received 4,000 calls in the first year and is now taking 300 calls a month from people under threat of honour-based violence, often linked to forced marriage.
After the government's forced marriage unit was set up in April last year, it received 5,000 calls and rescued 400 victims in the first six months.
They also face being hunted down, said Detective Chief Inspector Gerry Campbell of the Metropolitan police. “It's not uncommon to have bounty hunters out hunting down young people who have left forced marriages or fled from a family where they are at risk. It's rare for [one person] to take unilateral action, it's all done in consultation and there is logistical support and collusion in the extended community,” he said.
…Banaz Mahmod, who made contact with police five times to say she thought her life was in danger but always drew back from pressing charges. Banaz, 19, a Kurd, was murdered by family members at her home in Mitcham, Surrey, in 2006.
She had been raped and beaten by the older man she had been forced to marry, and had left him. Her elder sister, Bekhal, had also left home to escape their father's violence and the extended family was beginning to regard Mahmod Mahmod as a man who had lost control of his daughters. The shame became so unbearable that he held a meeting to discuss killing his daughter and her new boyfriend.
“I'm confident that no victim will ever be turned away in London and that officers know that to do nothing is not an option.
“Honour is about a collection of practices used by the family to control behaviour, to prevent perceived shame, but there's no honour in murder, rape, or kidnapping and with 25% of the [cases] we are seeing involving a person under 18: this is a child abuse issue too. The simple message is: If you do this you will be caught and brought to justice.
The behaviour of women seen to have dishonoured their families can be as harmless as wearing make-up or talking to boys. One suspected murder is believed to have been caused by a girl having a love song dedicated to her on a community radio show.
Diana Nammi, who runs the Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation in London: For someone to be killed for their make-up or clothes or having a boyfriend or for refusing to accept a forced marriage is so brutal and unacceptable.
In Pakistan the practice of honour killing – called karo-kari – sees more than 10,000 women die each year.
For Zena, she has her life but does not have her freedom. “When I first ran away I would go to the library and read loads of spy books to pick up tips. You have to teach yourself how to best keep hidden,” she said. “My life is about keeping a very low profile now and about looking over my shoulder, but at least I know I am alive and I grieve for those poor girls who are not.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/oct/25/h...
That you uptownsteve? I see you still haven't found the top to that glue.
I'd rather give them what they fear.
Mr. Dowd
Superb analysis fine work. Thank you.
I am sure this meant something I just do not know what?
Gawd man you are cracking me up lolol. You can spot um lolol.
Jonathan
Are you the same one from NEWSREAL?
Linda Rivera
You need to start your own blog rather than bloging on FrontPage this is not approiate I agree with most of your comments but you have now went into full blown blog mode.
This article commits the fallacy of the excluded middle. The author of this article views combating the war on terror in the following way
a.) exclusively legal
b.) exclusively military
However that is not how it is being fought and it has not been fault that way since 9/11
We are fighting this war with both legal and military options. As for a trial I am strongly in favor of it. A trial does the following things
a.) it shows the strength of US Justice that we can give a trial to men who committed such vile crimes. This has the affect of remind the world just what they did and shows the strength of US justice
b.) The terrorists will act in one of two ways.
1.) They will act like defiant Jihadis. This will remind Americans what we are fighting
2.) They will act submissive. This will show the Muslims what slime they truly are
This is a win/win situation for the US.
Your post commits the fallacy of insinuating that a US military tribunal isn't US justice. It is.
Your post commits the fallacy of insinuating that giving these guys a civilian trial is some great miracle of justice that only can happen in the US. Nonsense. Anybody can have a trial.
US justice is a joke. But putting that aside for a moment… doing this in civilian court is Obama's way of helping his Islamic brother make a big statement about US imperialism in court and also giving him a shot at getting off the hook. The guy's lawyer is salivating at all the options he has for delaying and getting a mistrial.
http://www.veteranoutrage.com
This is a full scale war..
Islam is at war with the Entire NON muslim world.
Either we win and retain our rights to freedom from islamic tyranny
or we loose and not only loose our right to
vote, free speech, gun ownership, freedom of assembly
but we will most likely be killed ..
Aren't you a bit weary of your tedious cut and paste posts that go on and on and on for pages. Yes Linda Rivera…just state things in your own words …
“It is better to let ten guilty men go free than convict one innocent man” has mutated into, “It is better to let ten guilty men go free than convict a single one of them.”
Well I guess we disagree on justice then. I always believed trials should be open and should happen where the crime took place. Oh well, takes all kinds.
Yeah anybody can have a trial, but I am interested in a real trial myself and I just don't see military tribunals filling that role. You know the secret thing at a secret location and no public review issue. Do you seriously believe the verdict with a military tribunal will be any possibility but guilty. Gee how Islamic would that be.
Of course we can have a trial with pre determined results, just like any junta can but I want a bit more out of the US. Just my nit picky belief in rule of law and stuff like that.
I do think it is a special thing about Western Countries that we can give true human scum fair and legitimate trials, do you disagree?
I really doubt their lawyers are salivating over this however I do expect them to do their job. That is called professionalism. Also see the part about me not wanting a sham trial.
The fact the Obama administration just did the largest terror raid in US history does that maybe just maybe make you think he isn't a terrorist? Of course he isn't Muslim but hey, whats the facts got to do with anything around here.
Your post was just silly nitpicking of course. The point of my post is that the author of this article thinks the war on terror is an either or option and that is simply absurd.
It wasn't a crime, idiot. It was a military attack.
Don't give me your tripe about “predetermined justice.” Did you NOT HEAR what Obama and his AG said on television? Idiot. Why do you think Obama said those things? Do you think, being a lawyer, that he doesn't understand how jury selection works? How a trial process works?
You don't know Obama isn't a Muslim. He is a Muslim. He said he is. But first and foremost, before he's a Muslim, he's a Marxist.
So, we'll just see how this whole thing plays out.