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Andrew McCarthy from the National Review:

The decision to bring Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other top al-Qaeda terrorists to New York City for a civilian trial is one of the most irresponsible ever made by a presidential administration. That it is motivated by politics could not be more obvious. That it spells unprecedented danger for our security will soon become obvious.

I couldn’t disagree more. It’s shameful that Mr. McCarthy is so disingenuous in his argument.  Nothing spells hypocrisy more than false indignation and fear-mongering about an issue that conservatives have tried to own for the past eight years.  In 2006, President Bush and his administration tried and convicted co-conspirator Zaccarias Moussaoui in a civilian court outside of Washington D.C.  Ramzi Yusef was tried during the Clinton administration for his complicity in the 1993 World Trade Center attacks.  This false, self-serving notion that this idea is “unprecedented” goes beyond the pale.  Do these talking pinheads ever do any research before writing this crap?

There is one point in Mr. McCarthy’s argument I agree with:  President Obama is driven by a political motivation.  But I happen to think it is a good one.  Why not showcase the power and majesty of the American judicial system?  Why not prove to the world that America is more than political hawks, hell bent on exacting righteous vengeance by any means necessary?

Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ):

“I saw the Mayor of New York said today, “We’re tough. We can do it.” Well, Mayor, how are you going to feel when it’s your daughter that’s kidnapped at school by a terrorist? How are you going to feel when it’s some clerk — some innocent clerk of the court — whose daughter or son is kidnapped? Or the jailer’s little brother or little sister? This is political correctness run amok.”

It is precisely this fear — not capitulating to party loyalty — that has terrified conservatives into retreating from what makes America, America.  We have cowered and genuflected to paranoia so much that we’ve created our own twisted version of Neverland.  Gitmo is an ever present reminder of us twisting and corrupting our ideals — the very things that make us unlike everyone else on Earth.  We have subjugated our own values and laws in order to establish our new bully mentality, forever casting our credibility as a superpower and beacon of light in doubt to the rest of the world.  This is what fear — irrational, irresponsible fear — can do to the mind.  Here’s more fear and worry from James Joyner:

[T]hese men are not citizens of the United States.  Second, they’re accused war criminals.  They simply should not be tried in U.S. civilian courts.  Rather, they should either be held accountable in a Nuremberg-style international forum or treated as war criminals by a U.S. military tribunal under the mechanisms provided by Congress and approved by the Supreme Court.

Aside from the virtual certainty that the trial will devolve into a media circus, there’s an incredibly good chance that Mohammed and his comrades will go free.  The fact that KSM was repeatedly waterboarded would seem to taint any subsequent evidence, including his own confession.

How utterly preposterous and naive.  What purpose did waterboarding serve then, if information obtained from it was unreliable and tainted?  This is the reaffirmation of the previous administration’s folly and inadequate intelligence and foresight.  As to the notion that you are empowering those that wish to destroy you, I say nonsense.  You’re not giving any terrorist a platform they didn’t already have.  This is no mockery or circus.  This will be real American justice, played out for all the world to see.  No amount of political spin on the subject can shield the fact that. in this instance, the justice department will bring a mountain of evidence to convict Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.  No half-thought idea will supplant what will take place before our very eyes — the religious extremism of KSM and his ilk will be exposed for what it is.  And it will remind the world, after years of feet dragging, just how barbaric the ideology of these cowards is.

And what better place for all of this to occur but in our greatest, grandest city?  The city where fellow Americans burned, and lives were changed forever?  Let us provide swift, exacting justice the American way.  Let us lead the way as we’ve always done, and show the world just how special our way of life is.

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4 Responses to “The Hypocrisy Of Trial And Terror”

1. Meg Gerrish says:

   November 25, 2009 at 10:54 am

   I strongly agree with you, Matthew. Joining with your voice, I offer this paragraph from “We Can Still Afford To Act Like America” by Leonard Pitts, Jr in the November 21 Miami Herald:

   “On [9/11], we elevated a mob of stateless criminals…to the exalted level of rogue nation. But they were never that, never a threat to our national existence, lacked the forces to take even one square inch of American soil. What they could threaten — and take — was our sense of ourselves as a brave, reasonable and civilized people, inhabiting a nation of laws. They beckoned us into the mud with them, and we leapt.”

   Let us be thankful that our nation is large, resilient, and if the Constitution is protected and the laws are followed, we will continue to have a great nation, worth all the sacrifices people make and have made.

   Reply
2. Mandy Richburg Rivers says:

   November 30, 2009 at 10:14 am

   And let’s not forget that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed et al. were picked up in Pakistan by the Pakistani ISI and turned over to American intelligence agents, not captured in war.

   They are being tried for acts against American citizens committed on American soil and therefore are subject to American Rule of Law per Amendment XIV, Section 1 of the United States Constitution.

   It amazes me that the same folks that walk around screaming that Obama and the Democrats want to “unravel the constitutional fabric that our country was founded on” are willing to turn a blind eye to this. But hey, the Constitution also prevents things like illegal wire-tapping, torturous interrogation and detaining prisoners without trial so why not.

   Reply
3. Matthew Wright says:

   December 1, 2009 at 9:50 am

   Well said Meg. Not only do I believe we’re strong enough to try these murderers, we should try them and set the pace for the rest of the world as we’ve always done.

   Thanks for the Pitts quote. I like his work.

   Reply
4. Matthew Wright says:

   December 1, 2009 at 9:54 am

   Mandy,

   I think those folks screaming about upholding the Constitution have never read it. In some cases, they can’t tell the Declaration of Independence from the Constitution (See John Boehner). That’s the irony here. Or is it the tragedy? I think it’s a little of both.

   Thank you for your comments.

   Reply

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