Why do Dems really want to give KSM a civilian trial in New York City?

[Little-Acorn]

http://media.townhall.com/Townhall/Car/b/gm09111920091120031656.jpg

[stephanie]

This is the most vindictive and vile administration I have ever seen..

They don't care what these trials will do to us or our country..

Hope and Change you can believe in..

[stephanie]

Lawyer: 9/11 Defendants Seek Platform For ViewsNEW YORK (CBS) ― Click


A lawyer for one of the five men facing trial for the Sept. 11 attacks says the men plan to plead not guilty and use the trial venue to express their political views.

Attorney Scott Fenstermaker said his client Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali and the others will not deny their role in the 2001 attacks but will tell the jury "why they did it."

He said that the men will explain "their assessment of American foreign policy."

Fenstermaker met with Ali last week at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He has not spoken with the others but said the men have discussed the trial among themselves.

The Justice Department announced earlier this month that the men would face a civilian federal trial in a New York City courthouse. The department did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment.

A German government official said the nation will send an observer to the upcoming trial. Justice Ministry spokeswoman Katharina Jahntz on Saturday confirmed a report in Der Spiegel that a German observer would attend the trial to ensure that no evidence provided by Germany would be used to apply the death penalty.

U.S. authorities announced last week that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would be tried by a New York court. No date has been set.

Three of the four suicide pilots who carried out the attacks had lived and studied in the northern German city of Hamburg.

Germany, like the rest of Europe, except for Belarus, does not execute criminals.

New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has voiced concern about manpower cuts affecting security decisions during the trial. "We obviously have to think about it. We are down over 5,000 police officers from where we were in 2001, so we have to take a very hard look at the resources that will be utilized for an operation like this," Kelly said.

Prodded by Sen. Charles Schumer, Holder agreed to have the federal government pick up about $75 million of the tab, money that will help turn lower Manhattan into a fortress once the al Qaeda men arrive here.

"We'll have a significant number of police officers on the ground. We'll have equipment sensors; we'll have our Skywatch deployed," Kelly said.

The decision to bring Mohammed and the other terror plotters here has Team Obama and the attorney general playing defense. Critics believe the trial could make New York and even bigger target and that Mohammed will use the court proceedings as a stage for his anti-American rhetoric.

"Does that approach not reward terrorists with benefits like potentially providing them access to sensitive information and providing them a platform for propagandizing?" Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky asked.

Holder said he's not worried.

"We need not cower in the face of this enemy. Our institutions are strong. Our infrastructure is sturdy. Our resolve is firm and our people are ready," Holder said.

Schumer said he's confident justice will be done.

"I've asked Eric Holder if he sees any legal barriers that some defense lawyer could throw in the way of instituting capital punishment for these terrorists and he said no," Schumer said.

However, Republican Congressman Peter King reiterated his stance that a move like this is only asking for trouble.

"The president's decision to bring detainees from Guantanamo to the United States for trial is one of the most dangerous decisions any president has ever made. The president is unilaterally ending the war against terrorism and returning us to a pre-Sept. 11 law enforcement regime," King said.

King and other House Republicans are trying to force a vote on the "Keep Terrorists out of America Act."

It forces the president to certify that any detainee brought here will not ever be released into the country.

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/911.trial.nyc.2.1327465.html

[crin63]

The other part not mentioned is that it was Holder's former law firm that represented terrorists in the past and it will probably be again. It will line the pockets of his former partners. Eric Holder should recuse himself from this matter.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/22/on-terrorists-justice-recused/


The Obama Justice Department is having problems prosecuting terrorist cases because top department attorneys have conflicts of interest.

According to documents obtained exclusively by The Washington Times, Associate Attorney General Thomas J. Perrelli, No. 3 official in the Justice Department, had to recuse himself on at least 13 active detainee cases and at least 26 cases listed as either closed or mooted.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, made waves Nov. 18 when he demanded that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. provide a list of all the suspected-terrorist detainee cases from which current Justice Department political appointees have had to recuse themselves. The extent of the conflicts at the department is still unclear.

Mr. Perrelli's recusals presumably stem from the work that either he or his former firm, Jenner & Block LLP, did on behalf of detainees while Mr. Perrelli served on the firm's management committee and on its appellate and Supreme Court practice groups. And Mr. Perrelli is just one official; a number of other Justice Department officials apparently did private-sector work on detainee cases.

This is an important topic. Even if each official who did prior work on detainee cases has indeed properly recused himself from those cases while at the Justice Department, there could be such a large number of affected officials that the department's prevailing ethos could be tilted strongly in the detainees' favor. Mr. Grassley's inquiry is pressing because it could ferret out any instance in which a department official should have been recused but wasn't.

When the senator publicly requested information from Mr. Holder, the attorney general merely promised to "consider" the request. After some hemming and hawing and dodging, Mr. Holder eventually said he needed to make sure there was no "attorney-client privilege" involved before disclosing the list of recusals. This is absurd. Attorney-client privilege may extend to the substance of lawyers' discussions with detainees, but not to the mere question of whether the lawyers are doing such work.

[HogTrash]

Liberal democrats are devout America haters and will allie with any enemy of the United States or support any policy that will damage it.

[SassyLady]

"We need not cower in the face of this enemy. Our institutions are strong. Our infrastructure is sturdy. Our resolve is firm and our people are ready," Holder said.

And our current administration are corrupt apologists.

[Kathianne]

And our current administration are corrupt apologists.

actually none of those things are true. We are not strong. Our infrastructure is weak. Close to, if not a majority of Americans see no threat.

We're in a shitload of trouble.