Comments on: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed plays New York City

By: Jack

Jack — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:34:14 +0000

and the result was years of built up resentment because of the Iraq war, the exposure of unauthorized waterboarding, highly radicalized Islamists,

The radicalized Islamists pre-existed this admin and the Bush admin. It is easy to make a case that this war began in ’79 with the Iranian hostage crisis.

That was under Carter, a democrat.

We had more issues during Reagan’s tenure, a la the bombing of the Beirut Marine Barracks. Reagan of course being a republican.

The timeline includes the first attack on the WTC during the Clinton administration.

The point here is that there is ample evidence that this is not something that is based upon which party is in power.

It is a war of ideologies that started quite some time ago. And though I dislike labels, it really is us against them.

That meaning the radical Islamists who see all non-Muslims as infidels who must convert or submit.

By: Karoli

Karoli — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:15:53 +0000

we shall see. Like so many Bush administration piles, this is another mess they left for this administration to clean up. When I sit down and truly think through everything those idiots did to completely pull this nation down, it makes me mad enough to…well. just mad, I guess.

By: coolrebel

coolrebel — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:07:59 +0000

In this case i’d say that we should just stay away from the airing of torture by not trying this guy in NYC. Whether it’s introduced in court or not – it’s going to be all over the place again. I just think it’s bad for this country to be obsessively dwelling on its mistakes. Move on. We’re not going to try Bush and Cheney so why bother discussing it. Ironically, this is one case where listening to the left is a bad idea!

As for KSM being able to argue that he couldn’t be tried by a military tribunal, I don’t buy it. We make the rules. We decide. All this stuff about American justice is a little self-serving. We fry innocent people in this country all the time.

I think of everything in terms of political up or downsides, kind of like a trainee left wing rove (i’d love that job!), and this KSM in NY thing does not pass the smell test. Bad move.

By: Karoli

Karoli — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:45:33 +0000

On the other hand, progressives have been complaining for a long time about torture photos, etc. being suppressed, not released, not available to the public. It seems to me that reserving them for motion defense in a trial is one way to satisfy the shouting rabble.

I don’t think legally there was really an option, given that the rules surrounding tribunals are such that KSM’s defense could successfully have argued jurisdictional issues. These crimes were committed before there was a war.

Also, (and again, maybe I’m wrong since I’m not a lawyer) by trying the case in Federal court in NY, they may foreclose introduction of the waterboarding altogether, since it took place after the fact and was related to the subsequently-declared war, no matter how tenuous that connection may be.