Posted by
Defend America on Friday, December 11, 2009 9:08:04 AM
An Irrational Act
Trying KSM in NYC will delay the verdict, and reduce the chances it is the right one.
By Andrew C. McCarthy
Here’s
the biggest problem with the Obama administration’s decision to
transfer Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other 9/11 jihadists to the
civilian court system: It makes sense only if it’s being done for the
wrong reasons — to provide a forum for the Left to use al-Qaeda as a
vehicle to put the Bush administration on trial, to give the Left the
“reckoning” that the Obama campaign promised before the 2008 election.
As
a matter of law enforcement or national security, it is irrational. To
demonstrate this, we need look no farther than the two principal
justifications Attorney General Eric Holder has offered: the asserted
need to end delay in seeking justice and the claim that a civilian
trial provides the best chance for a successful prosecution.
On
the matter of delay, let’s put aside for now the fact that, during the
Bush years, Holder’s former firm — and many lawyers who’ve since been
recruited into his Justice Department after years of volunteering their
services to the nation’s enemies — used every arrow in the litigator’s
quiver to delay, delegitimize, and derail war-crimes trials by military
commission. Let’s also ignore the fact that by subordinating terror
prosecutions to terror prevention — i.e., by prioritizing interrogation
and the gathering of intelligence over appointing counsel and
disclosing intelligence — we thwarted additional terror attacks and
saved lives. Let’s just stick with what passes for the attorney
general’s reasoning: that it has taken too long for the military courts
to complete war-crimes cases and that we must change our approach to
avoid unnecessary delay.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjM2OTZjYWY1NTYyNGY1NGZiOGY3NWUyNTkyMmM0MDk=