[StBernard] Is America a Serious Nation?

[Westley Annis]

THE CONSERVATIVE REVIEW - November 20, 2009

Is America a Serious Nation?
by Pat Buchanan

Are we at war -- or not?

For if we are at war, why is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed headed 
for trial in federal court in the Southern District of New 
York? Why is he entitled to a presumption of innocence and 
all of the constitutional protections of a U.S. citizen?

Is it possible we have done an injustice to this man by 
keeping him locked up all these years without trial? For 
that is what this trial implies -- that he may not be 
guilty. 

And if we must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that KSM 
was complicit in mass murder, by what right do we send 
Predators and Special Forces to kill his al-Qaida comrades 
wherever we find them? For none of them has been granted 
a fair trial. 

When the Justice Department sets up a task force to wage 
war on a crime organization like the Mafia or MS-13, no 
U.S. official has a right to shoot Mafia or gang members 
on sight. No one has a right to bomb their homes. No one 
has a right to regard the possible death of their wives 
and children in an attack as acceptable collateral damage. 

Yet that is what we do to al-Qaida, to which KSM belongs.

We conduct those strikes in good conscience because we 
believe we are at war. But if we are at war, what is KSM 
doing in a U.S. court?

Minoru Genda, who planned the attack on Pearl Harbor, a 
naval base on U.S. soil, when America was at peace, and 
killed as many Americans as the Sept. 11 hijackers, was 
not brought here for trial. He was an enemy combatant 
under the Geneva Conventions and treated as such.

When Maj. Andre, the British spy and collaborator of 
Benedict Arnold, was captured, he got a military tribunal, 
after which he was hanged. When Gen. Andrew Jackson 
captured two British subjects in Spanish Florida aiding 
renegade Indians, Jackson had both tried and hanged on 
the spot. 

Enemy soldiers who commit atrocities are not sent to the 
United States for trial. Under the Geneva Conventions, 
soldiers who commit atrocities are shot when caught. 

When and where did Khalid Sheikh Mohammed acquire his 
right to a trial by a jury of his peers in a U.S. court? 

When John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln, alleged 
collaborators like Mary Surratt were tried before a 
military tribunal and hanged at Ft. McNair. When eight 
German saboteurs were caught in 1942 after being put 
ashore by U-boat, they were tried in secret before a 
military commission and executed, with the approval of 
the Supreme Court. What makes KSM special? 

Is the Obama administration aware of what it is risking 
by not turning KSM over to a military tribunal in 
Guantanamo? 

How does Justice handle a defense demand for a change of 
venue, far from lower Manhattan, where the jury pool was 
most deeply traumatized by Sept. 11? Would not KSM and 
his co-defendants, if a change of venue is denied, have 
a powerful argument for overturning any conviction on 
appeal? 

Were not KSM's Miranda rights impinged when he was not 
only not told he could have a lawyer on capture, but that 
his family would be killed and he would be water-boarded 
if he refused to talk? 

And if all the evidence against the five defendants comes 
from other than their own testimony under duress, do not 
their lawyers have a right to know when, where, how and 
from whom Justice got the evidence to prosecute them? 
Does KSM have the right to confront all witnesses against 
him, even if they are al-Qaida turncoats or U.S. spies 
still transmitting information to U.S. intelligence? 

There have been reports that in the trials of those 
convicted in the first World Trade Center bombing, sources 
and methods were compromised, weakening our security for 
the second attack on Sept. 11. 

If the trial is held in lower Manhattan, how much security 
will be needed to protect against a car bomber who wants 
the world to see a mighty blow struck against the Great 
Satan? And if, as some suggest, the trial should be held 
on Governor's Island, would that not make the United 
States look like a nation under siege?

What do we do if the case against KSM is thrown out 
because the government refuses to reveal sources or 
methods, or if he gets a hung jury, or is acquitted, or 
has his conviction overturned? 

In America, trials often become games, where the 
prosecution, though it has truth on its side, loses 
because it inadvertently breaks one of the rules. 

The Obamaites had best pray that does not happen, for 
they may be betting his presidency on the outcome of the 
game about to begin.