The Trial of K. Sheik Mohammed
By Thoreau
As Greenwald notes, the federal government has decided to allow due process for terrorism suspects…if they think they can secure convictions in the regular court system. If they don’t think the regular court system is guaranteed to convict? Then the military will handle it. And if the military officers can’t be relied upon to put aside professionalism and render the fore-ordained verdict irrespective of how tainted the evidence is? Then they can rot in a secret CIA facility, perhaps located on real estate previously used by the KGB.
That’s some world peace right there, I tell ya.
Comment by joe from Lowell —
November 13, 2009 @ 5:16 pm
This site reads like parody sometimes.
There is an actual debate going on. On one side are the people who want to follow the rule of law, and on the other, there are the people who don’t. It is vitally important that the good guys win this debate.
But not nearly as important, apparently, than saying that the good guys aren’t good enough.
Don’t bother replying. I’m interested in the real debate that’s going on.
Comment by hf —
November 13, 2009 @ 5:42 pm
I’ll bother replying anyway.
One side, lets call it “R”, wants to trash the rule of law 95%, another side, lets call it “D”, wants to trash it 90%, and then there are others that don’t want to trash it at all.
You support the 90 percenters, and think the most important thing is to fight very hard against the people that don’t want to trash it all at.
Comment by dutchmarbel —
November 13, 2009 @ 6:09 pm
Doesn’t the USA legal system also have a rule about evidence that originates from torturing suspects? Is there a case without whatever he said after being waterboarden a few times per day?
Comment by hf —
November 13, 2009 @ 6:31 pm
dutchmarbel – yes, but the rules can be changed by roughly five judges.
Torture evidence is pretty clearly prohibited by the BoR section on not being compelled to testify against yourself. But what about torturing the other witnesses to get them to testify? Ha Ha! Loophole!
Comment by Joshua Holmes —
November 13, 2009 @ 9:17 pm
The point, joe, is that the good guys aren’t good at all.
Comment by All Your Summer Songs —
November 13, 2009 @ 9:33 pm
Uh… you holdin’?
Comment by Dave W. —
November 14, 2009 @ 12:05 pm
If they put KSM onb trial then he is going to say that Flight 93 was shot down. It will be interesting if he says this in time for the midterm elections.
Comment by Barry —
November 14, 2009 @ 3:31 pm
“But what about torturing the other witnesses to get them to testify? Ha Ha! Loophole!”
I’ve thought of that before. Do a ’round robin’ torture session, where each person is tortured until they give testimony about all of the others.
Comment by BDB —
November 15, 2009 @ 9:48 pm
I’m not exactly sure why joe thinks using evidence obtained through torture in a trial is “the rule of law”.