There will be plenty of time to analyze the wisdom or lack thereof in bringing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to New York City for a civilian criminal trial.
Plenty of times as in years and possibly decades of legal wrangling over a host of issues. But it is worth noting what KSM’s opening statement will look like, if this case ever gets to trial.
Embedded below is the statement submitted by KSM and several other detainees to the Military Commission at Guantanamo Bay. Here is an excerpt:
With regards to these nine accusations that you are putting us on trial for; to us, they are not accusations. To us they are badges of honor, which we carry with pride….
We ask you; who initiated the attacks on civilians? Who is attacking civilian objects? And who is causing grave bodily harm against civilians? Is it us, or is it you?
…. was it not you that attacked an entire population in Iraq, destroying civilian targets and its infrastructure? Was it not you that has killed one million Iraqi children caused by your oppressed economic sanctions, which you imposed after the first Gulf War?
In fact, it was you who had wiped out two entire cities off the face of the earth and killed roughly half a million people in a few minutes and caused grave bodily harm by nuclear radiation? Did you forget about your nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
You are the last nation that has the right to speak about civilians and killing civilians. You are professional criminals, with all the meaning the words carry. Therefore, we kill treat you the same. We will attack you, just like you have attacked us, and whomever initiated the attacks is the guilty party.
Legally worthless. Eerily similar to political rhetoric we hear in this country. Possibly music to the ears of a secretly sympathic juror.
But to KSM, the chance to give such a lecture in the shadows of the former Twin Towers, a short distance from where thousands of infidels died, in a room face to face with the loved ones who still mourn …. to him, it will be priceless.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s Opening Statement?
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Comments
That's rich – a lecture about attacking others from a 9/11 attacker.
And this is why we shouldn't give these clowns the time of day. Why are we wasting our time and money with this? 8 years later too – why aren't these jokers dead already? And what a slap in the face of those who died and families who suffed a loss if they let him utter those words so close to where it happened.
He ought to receive just punishment, and I think we all know what that means. But can you argue or deny what he is saying? Are we not giving them some of the same fuel by the present drawn-out actions in Iraq/Afghanistan/Pakistan? We can't be completely willfully ignorant of the facts, the fact that America has indeed, intentionally killed large numbers of civilians, even if we agree that KSM is a military, not civil, criminal. It is not unreasonable to criticize the Iraq sanctions/bombing campaigns of the 90s, nor Hiroshima/Nagasaki, where after we then acted as though attacks on American civilians is more egregious than attacks on foreign civilians. They don't see it as democracy v. tyranny; they see it foreigners killing civilians. Wouldn't we see it the same way? Didn't we on 9/11?
Before his administration made the decision to try KSM in New York, I just thought Obama was the most arrogant, misguided, and incompetent president in America's last hundred years. Now I recognize he poses the biggest risk to our national security of possibly anyone, and he has just put our lives, our freedom, and the dignity of those murdered on 9/11 in jeopardy.
Excellent post and a preview of the sickening act to come. I'm afraid that Mr. Obama is our Neville Chamberlain. I don't expect to go home and get a nice quiet sleep.
I think we'll find that KSM is a skilled propagandist who will say things that will seem persuasive to quite a few people in America (e.g., that we've carried Israel's water to our detriment and if we just let the Levant alone, all would be peaceful for us).
For proof, look no farther that commenter John Sanzone above who seems to think that some of what KSM has to say makes sense, if we look at things from his point of view. Of course, it's not morally equivalent to (a) deliberately murder thousands of innocent men, women and children to make a point, and (b) harm civilians as a collateral effect of military actions, provided you make a considerable effort to avoid it. Mr. Sanzone should know that the Allies killed many more French civilians during the Northwest Europe campaign than all the Iraqis and Afghans of recent years because our forces have been vastly more disciplined about it (and that's not mentioning the Italian, German and other civilians killed in WWII). In my view, Hiroshima and Nagasaki are easily defended on the grounds that we were fighting a total war against monstrous tyrannies.
In any case, since KSM and UBL claim only to have a devine right to protect Muslim lands, it's hard to see why bombing Japan matters to him — except of course, that he's a smart enough propagandist to know how to push Westerners' sensitive buttons.
And this is the spewed propaganda trash that Holder believes is worthy of a civilian court?
It's enough to make you take up chain smoking.