ÿþ<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1"> <title>OnlineColumnist®.com: Duke's Damage Control</title> <meta name="generator" content="Adobe GoLive 4"> <style type="text/css"> .style1 { font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold; } </style> </head> <body bgcolor="white" vlink="black"> <center> <table cool width="624" height="2719" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" gridx="16" showgridx gridy="16" showgridy> <tr height="79"> <td width="116" height="118" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"> <a href="081609.html"><img height="110" width="62" src="images/discobolos.logo.transp.gif" border="0"></a></td> <td width="24" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="465" height="79" colspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="140"><img height="75" width="450" src="images/banner.GIF"></td> <td width="18" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="79"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="79"></td> </tr> <tr height="39"> <td width="182" height="39"></td> <td width="283" height="39" valign="top" align="left" xpos="322"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="14" width="267" src="images/divisionofNEW.GIF" border="0"></a></td> <td width="1" height="39"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="39"></td> </tr> <tr height="26"> <td width="624" height="26" colspan="6" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#99ffcc" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4"> <tr> <td align="center"> <div align="left"> <a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> HOME</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> &#8226; <a href="articlesindex.html">ARTICLES</a> &#8226; <a href="books.html">BOOKS</a> &#8226; <a href="teflon.html"> THE </a><a href="teflon.html">TEFLON</a><a href="teflon.html"> REPORT</a> &#8226; <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com"> REACTIONS</a> &#8226; <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">ABOUT DISCOBOLOS</a></strong></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr height="1"> <td width="116" height="2574" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><img height="172" width="111" src="images/johninframe3.jpg"></td> <td width="489" height="1" colspan="3"></td> <td width="18" height="2574" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> <tr height="2573"> <td width="489" height="2573" colspan="3" align="left" xpos="116" content valign="top" csheight="2573"> <font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="5"><b> <br /> <br /> Holder&#39;s Show Trial</b></font><p><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b> by John M. Curtis<br> (310) 204-8700</b><br> </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><i>Copyright Nov.18, 2009<br> All Rights Reserved.</i></font></p> <p><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span class="style1">R</span>eturning Sept. 11 masterminds Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to Ground Zero, Atty. Gen. Eric Holder announced he would press ahead with a civilian criminal trial in New York City.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Expecting Mohammed to be exposed as a  murderous coward, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Holder seeks the terrorist s conviction and eventual execution, turning the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan into a media circus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>  Failure is not an option, said Holder, insisting he d succeed at getting justice for the American people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Now living at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Mohammed has no right to counsel, other than a military public defender.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Holder s decision to afford Mohammed the same rights as other criminal defendants irked White House critics, believing a show trial offers little justice in the wake of Sept. 11.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> President Barack Obama supports the idea of civilian trials for Guantanamo Bay terrorists.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Obama campaigned on closing Guantanamo Bay, something that s supposed to happene sometime after New Years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Barack believes the public won t find it  offensive at all when he s convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him, a slap at former Bush administration justice that viewed offshore military tribunals as the appropriate venue in which to prosecute battlefield detainees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Bush s legal team went through great gyrations defining terrorists as  enemy combatants, not entitled to either legal protections under the U.S. Constitution or Geneva Convention, where detailed rules spell out for managing prisoners of war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Obama and Holder s decision to try Mohammed in federal court creates a kind of Nuremberg Trial, where Nazi war criminals were prosecuted after WW II.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Trying Mohammed in New York City opens an old festering wound.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Holder s decision directly relates to torture allegations against former Bush officials, including former Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales, who authorized  enhanced interrogation techniques, a practice equated with torture by the Obama administration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span> Barack was certain that  we ll convict the person with the evidence they ve got, going through our system, disregarding criticism about exposing New York City to more trauma and new security challenges. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;</span>Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Holder s logic, especially about the certainty of winning conviction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> How can you be more likely to get a conviction in a [civilian] court than that? asked Sen. John Kyl (R-Ariz.), questioning prosecutors speculation about convicting Mohammed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Mohammed had already confessed to military interrogators his involvement in Sept. 11.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Holder s decision hinged on making a forceful statement that the Obama administration won t skirt the U.S. constitution or Geneva Convention to prosecute terrorists responsible for Sept. 11.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Holder insisted his decision wasn t based  on the whims of or the desires of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed . . . He will not select the prosecution venue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>I will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>And I have, making a deliberately forceful personal statement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Mohammed already confessed to military prosecutors, under enhanced interrogation techniques, including the controversial  waterboarding practice, that he was the mastermind of Sept. 11.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Republicans expressed concerns that Mohammed would turn the trial into an international circus, highlighting the military s attempts at<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>brainwashing and torture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Holder expressed faith in the U.S. legal system to handle Mohammed s show trial.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Placing Mohammed on trial in Manhattan flies in the face of military s responsibility to conduct the war on terror.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Moving the venue to federal court indicates that White House has lost faith I the military s ability try, convict and sentence terrorists threatening U.S. national security.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Holder s move highlights conflict within the Obama administration to redefine terrorists as civilians engaged in criminal behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Bush officials bent over backwards to define terrorists as neither civilians nor part of any organized military to skirt both the U.S. Constitution and the Geneva Convention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>If Holder wishes to redefine terrorists, he needs to pick either category.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Bush s neither  fish nor foul approach twisted legal definitions to the breaking point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Defining terrorists now as criminals and affording them rights under the Constitution defies logic and common sense.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>White House logic of trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed for mass murder in U.S. District Court robs the military of its responsibility of prosecuting the war on terror.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> I have every confidence that the nation and the world will see him for the coward that he is, Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> I m not scared of what the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has to say at the trial and no one else needs to be, either, revealing Holder s contorted logic for his new show trial.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Holder doesn t need to publicly try Sept. 11 terrorists to prove their cowardice or showcase the U.S. justice system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>  We are making history, and we re making bad history, said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), calling Holder s decision  a perversion of justice. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>White House officials should reconsider Holder s decision and once-and-for-all define terrorists as prisoners of war, prosecuting them accordingly.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><b>John M. Curtis</b> writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.&nbsp; He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of <a href="books.html">Dodging The Bullet </a>and <a href="books.html">Operation Charisma.</a></p> </td> <td width="1" height="2573"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2573"></td> </tr> <tr height="1" cntrlrow> <td width="116" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="116" height="1"></td> <td width="24" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="24" height="1"></td> <td width="182" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="182" height="1"></td> <td width="283" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="283" height="1"></td> <td width="18" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="18" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" width="597"> <tr> <td><font size="1" face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica"> <hr noshade size="1"> </font><a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> Homene.net" target="_blank">img height="30" width="138" src="images/cmelogoANIM.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"></a></font></p> </div> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">&copy;1999-2002 <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">Discobolos Consulting Services, Inc.</a><br> (310) 204-8300<br> All Rights Reserved. </font></td> </tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>