Moving the Terror Trials
Looks like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed won’t be tried in New York after all. But if not New York, then where?
A former high ranking CIA official commented that for security purposes and to minimize disruption, the ideal location would be a military base. But which? Ideally, you would want a base reasonably close to major media centers in New York and Washington, easily secured, and prepared to receive large numbers of observers. What military facility would fit the bill? The official answered his own question: “How about Gitmo?”
What kind of trial?
Congressman Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) has introduced a bill that requires all detainees currently held at Guantanamo Bay to be tried in military commissions there, instead of being transferred to cities like New York or Washington D.C. for civil trials. Rooney passionately points out that “it drives me crazy that we are ignoring these military tribunals now. It was good enough for George Washington, Lincoln, and FDR but somehow it is not good enough for Obama. “
John Yoo, a Department of Justice lawyer during the Bush administration and author of Crisis and Command, concurred and explained to FrumForum that in a military tribunal, “the rules are much more generous to protecting national security secrets. Military commissions have experts on the rules of warfare and how wars are fought. In this venue, the chances of acquitting KSM are far lower because with a federal jury, it only takes one person who does not want to convict.”
On the other hand, a death sentence might be harder to get in a military tribunal unless the conspiracy law of 2006 is amended by Congress. Under federal law, as long as someone in the conspiracy commits an overt act, all members are held responsible. For a military commission, the person conspired ONLY if they actually committed the overt act.
Above all the president himself has already fatally contaminated the integrity of a civilian trial by his own words. As former CIA director Michael Hayden stated in an interview with FrumForum, this administration wants “to show the world how great our American justice system is; yet, how can it be a fair trial if the President and the Attorney General already came out and said KSM was going to be found guilty, even though our system presumes KSM to be assumed innocent. Further, if he is declared innocent they made it clear that he will be kept in jail. This would seem to undercut one of the stated purposes of a civilian trial which is to showcase the American civilian justice system.”