[StBernard] Travesty in New York

[Westley Annis]

THE CONSERVATIVE REVIEW - November 24, 2009

Travesty in New York
by Charles Krauthammer

WASHINGTON - For late-19th-century anarchists, terrorism 
was the "propaganda of the deed." And the most successful 
propaganda-by-deed in history was 9/11 -- not just the 
most destructive, but the most spectacular and telegenic. 

And now its self-proclaimed architect, Khalid Sheik 
Mohammed, has been given by the Obama administration a 
civilian trial in New York. Just as the memory fades, 
9/11 has been granted a second life -- and KSM, a second 
act: "9/11, The Director's Cut," narration by KSM. 

September 11, 2001 had to speak for itself. A decade later, 
the deed will be given voice. KSM has gratuitously been 
presented with the greatest propaganda platform imaginable 
-- a civilian trial in the media capital of the world -- 
from which to proclaim the glory of jihad and the criminal-
ity of infidel America. 

So why is Attorney General Eric Holder doing this? 
Ostensibly, to demonstrate to the world the superiority 
of our system where the rule of law and the fair trial 
reign. 

Really? What happens if KSM (and his co-defendants) "do 
not get convicted," asked Senate Judiciary Committee 
member Herb Kohl. "Failure is not an option," replied 
Holder. Not an option? Doesn't the presumption of 
innocence, er, presume that prosecutorial failure -- 
acquittal, hung jury -- is an option? By undermining 
that presumption, Holder is undermining the fairness of 
the trial, the demonstration of which is the alleged 
rationale for putting on this show in the first place. 

Moreover, everyone knows that whatever the outcome of the 
trial, KSM will never walk free. He will spend the rest of 
his natural life in U.S. custody. Which makes the proceed-
ings a farcical show trial from the very beginning. 

Apart from the fact that any such trial will be a security 
nightmare and a terror threat to New York -- what better 
propaganda-by-deed than blowing up the entire courtroom, 
making KSM a martyr and making the judge, jury and 
spectators into fresh victims? -- it will endanger U.S. 
security. Civilian courts with broad rights of cross-
examination and discovery give terrorists access to crucial 
information about intelligence sources and methods. 

That's precisely what happened during the civilian New 
York trial of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers. The 
prosecution was forced to turn over to the defense a list 
of two hundred unindicted co-conspirators, including the 
name Osama bin Laden. "Within ten days, a copy of that 
list reached bin Laden in Khartoum," wrote former Attorney 
General Michael Mukasey, the presiding judge at that trial, 
"letting him know that his connection to that case had 
been discovered." 

Finally, there's the moral logic. It's not as if Holder 
opposes military commissions on principle. On the same 
day he sent KSM to a civilian trial in New York, Holder 
announced he was sending Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, 
mastermind of the attack on the USS Cole, to a military 
tribunal. 

By what logic? In his congressional testimony Wednesday, 
Holder was utterly incoherent in trying to explain. In his 
Nov. 13 news conference, he seemed to be saying that if you 
attack a civilian target, as in 9/11, you get a civilian 
trial; a military target like the Cole, and you get a 
military tribunal. 

What a perverse moral calculus. Which is the war crime -- 
an attack on defenseless civilians or an attack on a 
military target such as a warship, an accepted act of war 
which the U.S. itself has engaged in countless times? 

By what possible moral reasoning, then, does KSM, who 
perpetrates the obvious and egregious war crime, receive 
the special protections and constitutional niceties of a 
civilian courtroom, while he who attacked a warship is 
relegated to a military tribunal? 

Moreover, the incentive offered any jihadi is as irresist-
ible as it is perverse: Kill as many civilians as possible 
on American soil and Holder will give you Miranda rights, 
a lawyer, a propaganda platform -- everything but your own 
blog. 

Alternatively, Holder tried to make the case that he chose 
a civilian New York trial as a more likely venue for 
securing a conviction. An absurdity: By the time Obama 
came to office, KSM was ready to go before a military 
commission, plead guilty and be executed. It's Obama who 
blocked a process that would have yielded the swiftest and 
most certain justice. 

Indeed, the perfect justice. Whenever a jihadist volunteers 
for martyrdom, we should grant his wish. Instead, this one, 
the most murderous and unrepentant of all, gets to dance 
and declaim at the scene of his crime. 

Holder himself told The Washington Post that the coming 
New York trial will be "the trial of the century." The 
last such was the trial of O.J. Simpson.