Comments on: Undue Command Influence

By: Snake Eater

Snake Eater — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:50:22 +0000

…as the excellent comments above clearly demonstrate… you don’t have to be a flippen lawyer or to have “experienced a night at a Holiday Inn” Express, to wonder, as a sentient human being,just what the f**k Holder hoped to accomplish by staging this travesty…destruction of the Bush administration’s leagcy?…to show the grandeur of the American judicial system?…who knows…but we’ll soon find out…as it’s becomming clear that this event is shaping up to become…tolerance please…a giant goat f**k, and in my opninion, an unanticipated PR disaster for the Obama Administration…

…so Laddies and Lex Babes…hang on to your sox and get ready, at the taxpayers ( our ) expense, for a remedial course in migrane inducing never ending criminal defense procedure…after which there’s the equally nightmare inducing vior dier of prospective jurors…add to that the just breaking news that Germany is now balking at cooperating in this matter over the death penalty issue and you have months…possably years of leagl falderol and PC la de, flippen da, before this case ever gets to trial…the upside however slim is it’s definitely not good for Obama…the great liberal/black community organizer and soon to be one term failure…one takes what one can get… Best

By: xformed

xformed — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:01:13 +0000

Yes…at least there’ll be no cost for snow removal during the trials, and…the whole golfing on the Moon experience when not in the court room!

By: lex

lex — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:50:59 +0000

I don’t know that I can agree with the AUMF as a demarcation point for the status of lawful or unlawful combatants. After Pearl Harbor we were in a de facto state of war with Japan even if the de jure definition didn’t happen until Roosevelt won his declaration of war from Congress. It would be as much as saying that any Japanese war crimes – the Pearl Harbor attack among them – until the declaration of war were purely criminal matters, which would unfairly privilege the aggressor.

It is possible for KSM to be both a combatant and an air pirate, the categories are non-exclusive. I agree that KSM has violated a range of domestic and international laws, and obviously can be tried in any of several venues, from the Hague, to the New York federal, state and city courts and to properly constituted military commissions. The question of where to try him is therefore predominantly a policy-based decision. In this case, I believe the AG has made a poor decision that establishes a two-tier justice system: One for “slam dunks” like KSM, and military commissions for those who remain too dangerous to release but against whom the case is problematical to prove from a civil or national security standpoint. Thus, some overseas defendants will be awarded full Constitutional protections, including due process, discovery, etc. Others will not.

In the long run, that might come around and bite us and it’s hard to see what advantages are gained. We will “show off” our criminal justice system only when we are assured of convictions – show trials, in other words – and use whatever other means are expedient otherwise. Hardly the moral high ground, and not without risk.

By: Liz

Liz — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:38:34 +0000

I don’t think it muddies their status. There are specific international laws against air piracy which would strip KSM of combatant status. Anything after that is simply murder, not combat. Furthermore, the conspiracy for 911 occured before Congressional AUMF. So there’s the ex post facto legal considerations that would have to be addressed in the military trial. Not in a civilian trial.

By: Liz

Liz — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:28:28 +0000

THey didn’t give him the death penalty because we had an agreement with the German government that wouldn’t release evidence against him unless we agreed that the death penalty wouldn’t be pursued.

By: G-man

G-man — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:14:50 +0000

Anyone remember the Ken Starr investigations? and how the dems railed loudly against – of all things – the financial costs involved. MILLIONS spent to uncover – gasp – oral sex and a stain. Now we’re getting ready to spend hundreds of millions on these show trials – something right out of Circus Maximus. BHO tells his departments “cut costs and prepare for a dip in funding cuz we got a deficit”. So lets cut 100 million and leave them in Gitmo. Weather much better there than in NYC.

Just not sure New York is ready for a coordinated multi-car bomb scenario. So ship the court to Gitmo.