.KSM: Back to zero
The Obama administra tion's fumbling on trials for the 9/11 ter rorists turns out to be worse than anyone realized: It didn't just waste two years trying to hold a civilian trial for Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the confessed 9/11 mastermind -- it set the clock back even further.
Plans by Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder for a trial in New York were always absurd -- even the old Democratic Congress felt obliged to render the move impossible.
But, now that the administration's thrown in the towel on civilian trials, it refuses to just pick up proceedings against KSM back where they left off in the Bush years. Team Obama insists on starting from scratch.
Cmdr. Leslie Hull-Ryde, a Defense Department spokeswoman, confirmed it for me: "The original charges against KSM and his co-defendants were withdrawn and dismissed. In the event charges are sworn and referred against these individuals, the process will start from the beginning, which will be the arraignment.
"Any charges sworn against KSM and his co-defendants and referred to a military commission will not be bound by any motions or rulings made in the previous commission."
Why does this matter? KSM spent nearly two years lodging absurd objections to derail or delay the legal process at Guantanamo.
For example, he demanded the removal of his own military defense lawyer (who was only acting as an adviser because KSM insisted on representing himself) because he'd briefly served in Iraq and was therefore tied to the deaths of Muslims. Never mind that KSM himself killed hundreds of Muslims in the East African embassy bombings, the Bali bombings and on 9/11 itself.
He also objected to American law because it gives legal rights to homosexuals and equal rights to women, and demanded the judge's removal over unspecified allegations of bias.
He pleaded guilty to the 9/11 attacks, 30 other mass murders and his personal execution of Daniel Pearl -- then reversed his guilty plea when his four co-defendants weren't allowed to plead with him.
He heckled the judge, jury and spectators and even claimed the court artist had violated his "human rights" by making his nose too big.
The five defendants had all sorts of sick "fun": One of them (possibly KSM himself) wrote down the four flight numbers of the 9/11 planes, folded the paper into an airplane -- and flew it across the courtroom.
All these shenanigans absorbed more than a year and cost taxpayers more than $1 million. Now we'll have to go through all of it again.
So this September, on the 10th anniversary of the attacks, KSM will still be mocking the American system of justice and taunting the families of 9/11 victims, who desperately want to close this painful chapter in their lives. Where is the mercy for them?
It's hard to say how long they'll have to wait. The president has put Attorney General Eric Holder in charge of the process, and he's in no rush. The administration hasn't begun the process of re-charging KSM yet -- nor even formally decided to do so.
And Holder hates this course -- as he made clear with his bizarre performance in announcing the return to military commissions. His outbursts that day prompted two key House committee chairmen to write the AG and Defense Secretary Robert Gates -- pointedly asking that "appropriate resources" be made available for the Guantanamo trials.
Reps. Buck McKeon and Lamar Smith -- who chair the Armed Services and Judiciary committees -- clearly worry that Holder will choke off funds needed for a speedy trial. More, they plainly suspect that Holder and Obama want to punt the actual trials until after the 2012 elections -- because the president doesn't want to be squeezed between the demands of his liberal base and the hopes of the American majority.
The 9/11 mastermind got one reprieve when Obama stopped the first military commissions in 2009. Will the administration ever stop playing politics and let justice take its course?
NYPost
Plans by Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder for a trial in New York were always absurd -- even the old Democratic Congress felt obliged to render the move impossible.
But, now that the administration's thrown in the towel on civilian trials, it refuses to just pick up proceedings against KSM back where they left off in the Bush years. Team Obama insists on starting from scratch.
Cmdr. Leslie Hull-Ryde, a Defense Department spokeswoman, confirmed it for me: "The original charges against KSM and his co-defendants were withdrawn and dismissed. In the event charges are sworn and referred against these individuals, the process will start from the beginning, which will be the arraignment.
"Any charges sworn against KSM and his co-defendants and referred to a military commission will not be bound by any motions or rulings made in the previous commission."
Why does this matter? KSM spent nearly two years lodging absurd objections to derail or delay the legal process at Guantanamo.
For example, he demanded the removal of his own military defense lawyer (who was only acting as an adviser because KSM insisted on representing himself) because he'd briefly served in Iraq and was therefore tied to the deaths of Muslims. Never mind that KSM himself killed hundreds of Muslims in the East African embassy bombings, the Bali bombings and on 9/11 itself.
He also objected to American law because it gives legal rights to homosexuals and equal rights to women, and demanded the judge's removal over unspecified allegations of bias.
He pleaded guilty to the 9/11 attacks, 30 other mass murders and his personal execution of Daniel Pearl -- then reversed his guilty plea when his four co-defendants weren't allowed to plead with him.
He heckled the judge, jury and spectators and even claimed the court artist had violated his "human rights" by making his nose too big.
The five defendants had all sorts of sick "fun": One of them (possibly KSM himself) wrote down the four flight numbers of the 9/11 planes, folded the paper into an airplane -- and flew it across the courtroom.
All these shenanigans absorbed more than a year and cost taxpayers more than $1 million. Now we'll have to go through all of it again.
So this September, on the 10th anniversary of the attacks, KSM will still be mocking the American system of justice and taunting the families of 9/11 victims, who desperately want to close this painful chapter in their lives. Where is the mercy for them?
It's hard to say how long they'll have to wait. The president has put Attorney General Eric Holder in charge of the process, and he's in no rush. The administration hasn't begun the process of re-charging KSM yet -- nor even formally decided to do so.
And Holder hates this course -- as he made clear with his bizarre performance in announcing the return to military commissions. His outbursts that day prompted two key House committee chairmen to write the AG and Defense Secretary Robert Gates -- pointedly asking that "appropriate resources" be made available for the Guantanamo trials.
Reps. Buck McKeon and Lamar Smith -- who chair the Armed Services and Judiciary committees -- clearly worry that Holder will choke off funds needed for a speedy trial. More, they plainly suspect that Holder and Obama want to punt the actual trials until after the 2012 elections -- because the president doesn't want to be squeezed between the demands of his liberal base and the hopes of the American majority.
The 9/11 mastermind got one reprieve when Obama stopped the first military commissions in 2009. Will the administration ever stop playing politics and let justice take its course?
NYPost
posted by madtom at 9:24 PM
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