Posted by
Defend America on Sunday, November 08, 2009 7:29:51 AM
Counterterrorism, Obama Style
After Justice’s sweetheart deal, judge gives al-Marri a slap on the wrist
By Andrew C. McCarthy
Five
months ago, when al-Qaeda jihadist Ali Saleh Kallah al-Marri pleaded
guilty, it was obvious that the Justice Department had given him a
sweetheart deal. On Thursday, a federal judge in Illinois dutifully
finished the job. Al-Marri, a committed sleeper operative sent by our
enemies to carry out a post-9/11 second wave of mass-murder attacks
inside the United States, was given an appalling sentence:
He’ll be eligible for release in about six years.
When
al-Marri entered his plea back in May, Attorney General Eric Holder
crowed that the case demonstrated the criminal-justice system’s
capacity to confront and quell international terrorism. As I
observed at the time, though, the plea bargain was a travesty.
It
marked a dramatic step backwards even from the wayward 1990s philosophy
that saw international terrorism as strictly a law-enforcement issue,
not a national-defense matter.
Prior Justice Department
practice required prosecutors to charge the most severe, readily
provable offense. And in 1996, to ensure that this practice would
result in sentences of death or life imprisonment for terrorists,
Congress — with significant encouragement from the Clinton Justice
Department (in its pre-Holder days) — overhauled federal
counterterrorism law. These new laws did not solve the underlying
problems: that terrorism is not a mere crime, and that regarding it as
such badly compromises national security. But they did at least mean
that terrorists who were successfully prosecuted would never again be
able to harm Americans or anyone else. The new laws were tailor-made
for terrorists like al-Marri, who joined al-Qaeda in 1998, reported
directly to the network’s top echelon, and was sent to the United
States by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, al-Qaeda’s operations chief and 9/11
master planner, to carry out mass-murder attacks using chemical and
biological weapons.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NmUzMGUwNGQyMjhjYWU5MmYwODhmNzE5MDI0MWEyYWE=