- Republican members of Congress and what masquerades as
a "conservative" media are outraged that the Obama administration
intends to try in federal court Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind
of 9/11, and four alleged co-conspirators.
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- The Republican and right-wing rant that a trial is too
good for these people proves what I have written for a number of years:
Republicans and many Americans who think of themselves as conservatives
have no regard for the US Constitution or for civil liberties.
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- They have no appreciation for the point made by Thomas
Paine in hisDissertations on First Principles of Government (1790):
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- "An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty.
It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best
of laws. He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his
enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent
that will reach to himself."
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- Republicans and American conservatives regard civil liberties
as coddling devices for criminals and terrorists. They assume that police
and prosecutors are morally pure and, in addition, never make mistakes.
An accused person is guilty or government wouldn't have accused him.
All of my life I have heard self-described conservatives disparage lawyers
who defend criminals. Such "conservatives" live in an ideal,
not real, world.
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- Even some of those, such as Stuart Taylor in the National
Journal, who defend giving Mohammed a court trial do so on the grounds
that there are no risks as Mohammed is certain to be convicted and that
"a civilian trial will show Americans and the rest of the world that
our government is sure it can prove the 9/11 defendants guilty in the fairest
of all courts."
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- Taylor agrees that Mohammed deserves "summary execution,"
but that it is a good Machiavellian ploy to try Mohammed in civilian court,
while dealing with cases that have "trickier evidentiary problems"
in "more flexible military commissions, away from the brightest spotlights."
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- In other words, Stuart Taylor and the National Journal endorse
Mohammed's trial as a show trial that will prove both America's honorable
respect for fair trials and Muslim guilt for 9/11.
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- If, as Taylor writes, "the government's evidence
is so strong," why wasn't Mohammed tried years ago? Why was he held
for years and tortured--apparently water boarded 183 times--in violation
of US law and the Geneva Conventions? How can the US government put a defendant
on trial when its treatment of him violates US statutory law, international
law, and every precept of the US legal code? Mohammed has been treated
as if he were a captive of Hitler's Gestapo or Stalin's KGB. And now we
are going to finish him off in a show trial.
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- If the barbaric treatment Mohammed has received during
his captivity hasn't driven him insane, how do we know he hasn't decided
to confess in order to obtain for himself for evermore the glory of the
deed? How many people can claim to have outwitted the CIA, the National
Security Agency and all 16 US intelligence agencies, NORAD, the Pentagon,
the National Security Council, airport security (four times on one morning),
US air traffic control, the US Air Force, the military Joint Chiefs of
Staff, all the neocons, Mossad, and even the supposedly formidable Dick
Cheney?
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- Considering that some Muslims will blow themselves up
in order to take out a handful of Israelis or US and NATO occupation troops,
the payoff that Mohammed will get out of a guilty verdict is enormous.
Are we really sure we want to create a Muslim Superhero of such stature?
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- Originally, according to the US government, Osama bin
Laden was the mastermind of 9/11. To get bin Laden is the excuse given
for the US invasion of Afghanistan, which set up the invasion of Iraq.
But after eight years of total failure to catch Osama bin Laden, it became
absolutely necessary to convict some culprit.
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- Unfortunately, there will be no such sensible outcome.
David Feige has told us what the outcome will be (Slate, Nov. 19). The
prosecution doesn't need any evidence, because no judge and no jury is
going to let the demonized "mastermind of 9/11" off. No judge
or juror wants to be forever damned by the brainwashed American public
or assassinated by right-wing crazies. Keep in mind that the kid, John
Walker Lindh, termed "the American Taliban" by an ignorant and
propagandistic US media, was guilty of nothing except being in the wrong
place at the wrong time. Despite the complete trampling of his every right,
he got 20 years on a coerced plea bargain.
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- The price that Mohammed will pay will be small compared
to the price we Americans will pay. The outcome of Mohammed's trial will
complete the transformation of the US legal system from a shield of the
people into a weapon in the hands of the state. Feige writes that Mohammed's
statements obtained by torture will not be suppressed, that witnesses against
him will not be produced ("national security"), that documents
that compromise the prosecution will be redacted. At each stage of Mohammed's
appeals process, higher courts will enshrine into legal precedents the
denial of the Constitutional right to a speedy trial, thus enshrining indefinite
detention, the denial of the right against damning pretrial publicity,
thus allowing demonization prior to trial, and the denial of the right
to have witnesses and documents produced, thus eviscerating a defendant's
rights to exculpatory evidence and to confront adverse witnesses, The twisted
logic necessary to disentangle Mohammed's torture from his confession will
also be upheld and will "provide a blueprint for the government, giving
them the prize they've been after all this time--a legal way both to torture
and to prosecute."
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- It took Hitler a while to corrupt the German courts.
Hitler first had to create new courts, like President George W. Bush's
military tribunals, that did not require evidence, using in place of evidence
hearsay, secret charges, and self-incrimination obtained by torture.
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- Every American should be concerned that the Obama administration
has decided to use Mohammed's trial to complete the corruption of the American
court system. When Mohammed's trial is over, an American Joe Stalin or
Adolf Hitler will be able to convict America's Founding Fathers on charges
of treason and terrorism. No one will be safe.
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- Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the
Treasury in the Reagan administration. He is coauthor of The Tyranny
of Good Intentions.He can be reached at:PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com
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