| Jamie Dupree |
It Doesn't Really Matter
After all of the yelling and screaming over whether there should be trials in civilian courts for the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and other plotters, it became evident at a Senate hearing on Wednesday that whatever happens in those cases, it may not really matter.
Why do I say that? Because that's what the Attorney General told Senators.
The subject was first raised by a Democrat, Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI), who got right to the point about what the future might hold for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others who would be on trial in Manhattan.
"In the event, that for whatever reason, they do not get convicted, what would be your next step?" Kohl asked.
The Attorney General clearly was not interested in giving a direct answer.
"What I told the prosecutors and what I will told you of what I spoke to them about is that failure is not an option," said Holder.
"These are cases that have to be won."
The answer left Kohl a bit puzzled.
"Well, that's an interesting point of view," he said with a slightly bemused look. I'll just leave it at that."
Later, Holder gave a more complete response, acknowledging that if some like KSM were acquitted, the U.S. government would not release him.
Instead, he would be declared an "enemy combatant" and could be held indefinitely.
Isn't that something that Democrats complained about during the Bush Administration?
So there you go. The trials aren't going to matter if they go badly, because the U.S.A. is never going to set KSM free, no matter what a jury of his peers decides.
Sensing some holes in Holder's case, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) gave the Attorney General a hypothetical involving Osama Bin Laden.
"Let's say we capture him tomorrow," Graham began, "Would he be entitled to Miranda warnings at the moment of capture?"
"That all depends," said a stammering Holder, in an answer that infuriated Graham.
"The big problem I have is that you are criminalizing the war," said the South Carolina Republican.
"If we caught Bin Laden tomorrow, there are mixed theories and we couldn't turn him over to the CIA and FBI or military intelligence for an interrogation on the battlefield, because now we are saying he is subject to a civilian court in the United States."
"What would you tell the military commander who captured him? Would you tell him he must read him his rights and give him a lawyer?" asked Graham.
Holder's answer again was, "it depends."
The argument of Graham and other critics of the 9/11 trials is that if you are taking a case into federal court, then you have to play by the evidentiary rules of a civilian court.
And those rules might make a conviction quite difficult.
The story about KSM is that when he was captured, he asked for a lawyer and requested to be flown to New York.
Because he wasn't granted a lawyer, and he wasn't given his Miranda warning, could this case fall apart under the Sixth Amendment?
You make the call.
What others are saying
- Shining Beacon?How can that be? When the AG comes right out and says that KSM will be found guilty and if not will be held indefinitely?
I say it is the so called liberals who hate America. Who want to see our judicial system gamed for political purpose.
Why do the liberals hate so much and why do they want to bring shame and ridicule to our nation?
John Adams and the other founders are surely rolling in their graves. - Criminal TrialI'm not an attorney but I don't see how if KSM is found not guilty the US could continue to hold him? Do we really expect our troops to bring these guys in alive if only to see them let go.
- a shinning beacon to the world on justice and lawWhy do you people hate America? wy keep bashing the American system? I believe in it and support it. The rule of law, its why John Adams defended the British soldiers in the Boston Massacre as their lawyer and late in life called it his HIGHEST service to the nation.
- Reality checkNY News Published: Saturday, March 5, 1994
A Federal jury yesterday convicted all four of the men on trial in the bomb attack that killed six people at the World Trade Center last year, causing hundreds of millions of dollars of damage and sending a jolt of fear through a nation abruptly aware of its vulnerability to terrorism.
The jury forewoman, speaking in a clear, firm tone, pronounced the word "guilty" 38 times as the clerk of the court asked her the verdict on each of the charges against the four men.
The verdicts, which came shortly before noon, were cheered by political leaders and law-enforcement officials and aroused emotional response of jubilation and relief throughout the city.
Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said he hoped that the verdicts would lessen tensions rather than increase them. "It should show that our legal system is the most mature legal system in the history of the world," he said, "that it works well, that that is the place to seek vindication if you feel your rights have been violated." - Can you say ...Kangaroo court?
How is this any better than the status quo is?
What is the point of a trial if KSM is to be incarcerated regardless of the outcome of this so called trial?
How can the US claim the 'moral high ground' if we stoop to the tactics of 3rd world petty dictators. - It Doesn't Really MatterI think President Obama and Eric Holder intend for these trials to be as much or more about President Bush and VP Cheney than about KSM. Holding these trials in New York has the potential to go wrong on so many levels. I will never understand why this decision was made.
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