Posted on 08/01/2005 6:33:16 AM PDT by conservativecorner
One would hardly know it from the tendentious political speech delivered by federal District Judge John Coughenour Wednesday in sentencing al Qaeda terrorist Ahmed Ressam to 22 years in prison for plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport, but the Ressam case shows what is wrong with a strategy of using the courts as our primary means of fighting terror -- as the Clinton administration did for eight years. The case also serves as an illustration of the potentially catastrophic consequences to Americans that can result from lax border-enforcement, asylum and welfare policies in countries like France and Canada. In sentencing Ressam, Judge Coughenour rejected the government's request for a 35-year sentence; prosecutors had sought to use the threat of more prison time as leverage to persuade Ressam, who has stopped cooperating with the government, to testify against two alleged co-conspirators who plotted with him to bomb the airport at or around Jan. 1, 2000. Ressam had originally faced up to 130 years in prison for his role in what has become known as the "millennium bombing" plot.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
and what happens after 22 years?
He gets out and is successful in his next plot?
Dear God when are we going to start taking these people out and shooting them dead when we catch them and burying them in pig guts?
This crap has to stop NOW.
It's worse--14 years, not 22 years. He'll still be plenty young enough to do whatever he wants to do.
There is always the very likely possibility none of these guys will make it for 22 years in an American prison. Lets just hope...
Bush should now try the guy in a milatary tribunal and then send him to the firing squad.
Based on the legal conferences I attend, "judicial independence" is a hot issue because judges fear their turf is being threatened.
It is not about justice or national security (many of the lawyer types see no excuse to use national security) it is about their delusion that a law will always work better than a military. Nevil Chamberlin taught us how well.
He should meet the fate of Jeffrey Dahmer...Sometimes, Shi'ite happens!
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