Countdown: Terror Trials
Obwon
Countdown: Terror Trials
Posted: 14 Nov 2009 06:30 AM PST
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Lawrence O'Donnell reports on the expected right wing
freak-out over Eric Holder�s announcement that Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed among others will be tried in New York rather than
military tribunals. Jonathan Turley weighs in and notes that
this is a return to the rule of law after the disgrace that
was the Bush administration.
Turley has more at his blog-- 9-11 Defendants to be Given
Real Trials as Holder Stands on Principle � Sort Of:
Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered actual trials
for five 9/11 suspects rather than military tribunals. The
decision places the United States squarely back on the road
of the rule of law in giving due process even to our most
hated defendants. The five defendants include 9/11
mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The other four are Waleed
bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi and
Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali. However, this courageous act was
diminished by an inexplicable decision of Holder to order
five other defendants � including USS Cole suspect Abd
al-Rahim al-Nashiri � be tried in a military tribunal. I
will be discussing this decision tonight on MSNBC Countdown.
Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn condemned the move as putting
�political ideology ahead of the safety of the American
people just to fulfill an ill-conceived campaign promise.� I
am not sure what ideology means but I assume it is a
reference to the Constitution. What makes us safer is to
offer the world an alternative to these men; to show that we
are not the hypocrites that we appeared during the Bush
Administration.
The decision to send some detainees to military
tribunals, however, is a baffling contradiction. Holder has
denied the Administration the high ground in the debate by
trying to appease both sides and deny due process to some of
these accused individuals. It is a case of snatching
hypocrisy out of the jaws of principle.
The right is going crazy over this of course since they
don't want the Bush administration exposed for the treatment
of these terrorism suspects. Limbaugh admits as much in the
rant they play in the beginning of the segment whether he
meant to or not.
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