I don’t really care about yesterday’s announcement regarding Obama’s decision to try KSM in federal courts. If there wasn’t so much fanfare being made about the whole thing, my reaction would have probably been a fairly straightforward “finally.” But wow, predictably, the Right is losing their shits. These trials combined with the Ft. Hood shooting has steered guys like Giuliani and Hannity back into what should be safe, familiar territory — ginning up fear about Islamo-Fascist-Extremist-Brownish-Terrorism. But in their excitement to finally stop talking about things they suck at (I think they suck at this stuff too, fyi) they seem to have stumbled into this hilarious set of talking points, which, when you break it down, basically places them in the role of surrendering to the terrorists. Greenwald scoffs:
This is literally true: the Right’s reaction to yesterday’s announcement — we’re too afraid to allow trials and due process in our country — is the textbook definition of “surrendering to terrorists.” It’s the same fear they’ve been spewing for years. As always, the Right’s tough-guy leaders wallow in a combination of pitiful fear and cynical manipulation of the fear of their followers. Indeed, it’s hard to find any group of people on the globe who exude this sort of weakness and fear more than the American Right.
People in capitals all over the world have hosted trials of high-level terrorist suspects using their normal justice system. They didn’t allow fear to drive them to build island-prisons or create special commissions to depart from their rules of justice. Spain held an open trial in Madrid for the individuals accused of that country’s 2004 train bombings. The British put those accused of perpetrating the London subway bombings on trial right in their normal courthouse in London. Indonesia gave public trials using standard court procedures to the individuals who bombed a nightclub in Bali. India used a Mumbai courtroom to try the sole surviving terrorist who participated in the 2008 massacre of hundreds of residents. In Argentina, the Israelis captured Adolf Eichmann, one of the most notorious Nazi war criminals, and brought him to Jerusalem to stand trial for his crimes.
It’s only America’s Right that is too scared of the Terrorists — or which exploits the fears of their followers — to insist that no regular trials can be held and that “the safety and security of the American people” mean that we cannot even have them in our country to give them trials. As usual, it’s the weakest and most frightened among us who rely on the most flamboyant, theatrical displays of “strength” and “courage” to hide what they really are.
One small note: The greatest argument against actually bringing these guys to trial seems to be that since they were tortured a bunch while in our captivity, they might get off on a technicality or something. I’m not a lawyer, but Obama is. He’s a smart dude, so is Holder, and they’re both acutely aware that if the trial of the 9/11 mastermind somehow gets bungled, it will, to put it mildly, not look good for them. One has to assume that they’ve got a pretty air-tight case against these guys.
