Obama will be shamed into trying terrorists at Gitmo
President Obama delivers an address on national security at the National Archives on May 21, 2009 (Pete Souza/White House)
The bipartisan blowback against our junior-varsity president’s decision to try terrorists in federal court is reaching gale force.
New York politicians were able to kick the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial out of Manhattan, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that not a single member of Congress wants the trial held in their home town either.
A growing coalition of lawmakers are saying “not in my back yard” to the terrorism trial, as even the most loyal Democrats are moving to block funding for any civilian trials. The pushback may represent yet another congressional rebellion against a high profile Obama White House terrorism decision, proving that even a persuasive president can’t overcome the power of local politics.
The most likely court outside of Manhattan would be in the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria, Virginia. Unfortunately for Obama, Democrat Sen. Jim Webb and Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell are standing athwart the bridges crossing the Potomac.
Virginia Sen. Jim Webb is leading Democrats’ charge against the trials in the Senate. Webb favors military commissions, and he says Virginia lawmakers will be opposed to having a civilian trial in Alexandria.
“We will be saying more about it,” Webb told POLITICO. “I don’t think we’d have any trouble getting support from at least most of the delegation that that’s a bad idea.” . . .
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a rising Republican star tapped by Washington leaders to respond to President Obama’s State of the Union address, is also adamantly opposed.
“That trial led to ongoing significant disruptions and potential threats for the citizens of that Virginia community, and local leaders have made clear they do not want to host such a trial again. I strongly oppose any Guantanamo Bay detainees being either held or tried in Virginia,” he said in a statement Monday.
It is only a matter of time until he caves and tries them by military commission, as he should have done in the first place. But don’t take my word for it that the Big Cave is coming, the White House has already greased the skids.
In the aftermath of the White House’s decision to seek alternative sites for trials of the 9/11 plotters, including alleged mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed, a senior administration official said Friday it is possible the suspects could be tried under military charges at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
The official stressed this is not the preferred option, but said using military commissions at Guantanamo for these high-visibility trials is “part of the range of options” the adminstration is “looking at in light of the fact some in Congress are planning to prevent the trials from occurring in New York City.”
Gitmo it will be.
This is the trouble with electing a president with no experience running anything. He stumbles around making amateurish decisions that are opposed by the American people and, in this case, both political parties. The decision to try the admitted terrorists in civilian court is not even subject to a coherent explanation, never mind a meritorious argument. Maybe Americans will learn next time around that the election for president is not the same thing as texting your vote for your favorite American Idol contestant.
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The President is just a partisan hack trying to please the few, far Leftists, instead of doing what is right for this country, and trying these war criminals at Gitmo. The proper place to try these terrorists is Gitmo. I think the Appeaser-in-Chief is learning a hard lesson in his making of a fiasco that primarily happened because of his inexperience.
Obviously we can not trust the international courts to try these criminals, and our own politicians do not want the trials in their states or districts for fear of retribution by sleeper cells living in our own country. Our fear of reprisal means the criminals have won. Where is F.D.R. when we need him? Where is the politician who will glady stand up and say “BRING IT ON” we will gladly try these criminals in our state, then hang them on the front steps of the court house. Never back down, never apoligize for actions taken in the pursuit of justice and liberty. Fear only leads to indecision and indecision can only
lead to disaster. Stop worrying about making these criminals martyrs. Show the world that we will not be held captive by thugs who want to take away our freedom and civil liberties all in the name of radical Islamic beliefs.
Well what can you do when our politicians are terrorized by criminals? Wait, no they are not criminals, they are TERRORISTS, middle eastern ubermen who can bring Superpowers like USSR and the United States of America to their knees by using box cutters and underwear bombs. A Proud moment for once tough New Yorkers and a perfect message to send to our enemies: Holy Crap are we afraid of you…the greatest city in the world doesn’t want you to attack it anymore so we’re going to hide in Cuba. Oh…and by the way our President is an incompetent wimp…in case you want to attack us again now is the time.
I just think that when a guy like KSM confesses to plotting 9/11 and wants to be executed, we take his plea and then take him out back and shoot him. What is all this other stuff for?
While you’re at it, why don’t we just snatch people off of airplanes or street corners who we think might be terrorists or linked to terrorists, torture them or quarterback our proxies in Jordan or Egypt or Pakistan torturing them to extract ‘actionable intelligence’, and when we’re done with them ‘disappear’ them to Syrian or Thai or Polish jail cells where they live in coffin-sized cells.
PS – All of these things actually happened under the Bush administration.
No, I don’t think so. You try KSM and as many other Gitmo detainees as possible in a court of law to make up for the stain on our country’s soul caused by Dick Cheney’s psychotic concept of national security. If you don’t, you head down the road of Argentina and you start flying ‘terrorists’ over the ocean in the middle of the night and dropping them in the drink. Why waste a bullet?
That’s the coherent, meritorious argument, Bill: that America is better than taking would-be martyrs out back and shooting them long after they’ve been snatched off the battlefield. Are you?
In response to another comment. See in context »KSM confessed and wants to be martyred. Still not sure what the show-trial is for.
Bush is gone. The United States is under new management. If Obama wants a trial, why not do it at Gitmo? He can give them all the rights he wants and all the lawyers he can stuff into the plane.
The administration has already said that even if KSM were found not guilty, he would never be released.
Now that doesn’t sound like the America I know. Frankly, it sounds rather Soviet to me.
In response to another comment. See in context »You’re right, President Obama shouldn’t be continuing the psychotic policies implemented to overthrow American law by the Cheney wing of conservative foreign policy thinking, things like ‘we won’t release someone found not guilty in a court of law.’ I’m glad you agree with me on that front. But it seems like you want a show execution (whether it’s seen or not) instead of a ’show trial’ which would be an actual trial. And that’s the point – Bush is gone, but the policies he signed off on malinger, as do malingering critics of Obama who want to continue and expand the Cheney approach to debasing our Constitution.
The only point of keeping Gitmo open is to have an area proximate to the United States that’s outside the scope of American laws.
In response to another comment. See in context »Mr Roston, why is it every knee jerk liberal continues to turn every political dicussion into a Bush/Cheney bashing? Let it go! Move on! The issue we’re dealing with now is why we as a country refuse to deal with these criminal/terrorists in an out front manner to show the world that we will not tolerate or fear those in this world who try to destroy our way of life in the name of radical fundamentalist Islam.
In response to another comment. See in context »It is not a show trial, it is a trial period. We try monsters over and over we do not lynch people no matter how heinous they are…haven’t you seen those John Wayne movies where he stands up for our system of justice?
In response to another comment. See in context »Noted right-wing rag, Newsweek, reported that
Dick CheneyEric Holder says that KSM will not go free even if he is acquitted.That is the very definition of a show trial. As I noted above, it is exactly what the Soviet Union did. That is not in the best traditions of America. Sometimes there just aren’t two sides to an argument. This is one of those times.
In response to another comment. See in context »michaelruark, my answer to you is that Dick Cheney and (often now via proxy with his daughter Liz) continues to flout any sense of accountability or acknowledge the failure of their preferred policy approach to fighting the war against al Qaida. They’re still making the case for torture, enforced disappearances, and a general sense of lawlessness in our approach to terrorism. They haven’t let it go, nor have they moved on, so why should I?
I understand your anger toward the previous administration for I once harbored, for many years, similar feeling towards Richard M Nixon for betraying our country and turning our excutive branch into a criminal enterprise. Only after years of beating this “dead horse” did I find that moving on gave me clarity and the peace of mind to deal with the issues at hand. I hope for your sake you don’t continue focusing on the past and are able avoid being sucked down into an abyss of hatred and resentment.
In response to another comment. See in context »