Posted on 03/16/2009 4:17:22 AM PDT by Sergeant Tim
The "terrorists to the bone" taunting by five Al Qaeda architects of the 9/11 attacks was a painful reminder that more than seven years after the murders of 3,000 Americans, the U.S. has failed abysmally in the application of justice.
Those who committed the unspeakable should no longer have the capacity to speak. They should be dead.
But no. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his fellow conspirators are shielded by lawyers who charge the government violated civil liberties by disclosing defiant declarations the terrorists themselves filed in court. This is the world turned disgracefully on its head.
We ourselves are to blame. The Bush and Obama administrations, Congress and the courts made prosecuting the blatantly guilty virtually impossible. Instead, we have the paralysis of politics and procedural protections.
Even if it kills us. And it is killing us. It is killing U.S. troops.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
Ping!
:(
LLS
I don’t agree with all they write but they get most of it.
I’ll add, what they get mostly right is, “They should be dead.”
lawyers who charge the government violated civil liberties by disclosing defiant declarations the terrorists themselves filed in court.
I find it hard to believe that the defense lawyers object to making their client's declarations a matter of public record. Not saying it isn't so, but it would be a radical departure from the past where the lawyers have fought tooth and nail to get publicity for their client's statements.
From what I've read, the declarations state, on their faces, what might be called "government violations of civil liberties." I'm a ta loss to figure out how disclosing the allegations amounts to a government violation of the accused prisoner's civil liberties.
"Captain Roger Hill is facing an Other Than Honorable discharge from the Army ... We hope to enlist your help in joining our letter writing campaign to the Secretary of the Army. The Human Resource Command (HRC) will review Roger's discharge packet and make a recommendation as to the characterization of his service to the Secretary of the Army Pete Geren."Read the story of Dog Company, visit the More than Brothers web site, and support our troops!
the U.S. has failed abysmally in the application of justice.
If the measure of success and failure is timeliness, I agree. About 4 years were lost ( IMO, wasted) as the GWB administration tried to invent an "executive department only" system of terrorist justice. Congress acquiesced, and has at least an equal measure of blame in this wasted time.
The US was able to defeat Saddam Hussein's armies, find him, and oversee a trial and execution under a new Iraq government ... all in less time.
You rock.
“...the GWB administration tried to invent an “executive department only” system of terrorist justice.”
You’ll recall that FDR invented one as well, the Supreme Court rightly opined he was within his wartime powers, 6 of the 8 Quirin saboteurs were hung 50 days after their military tribunal found them quilty, and 1,100 prosecutions of WWII war criminals (not the Nurnberg trials) occured under that system with an 89% conviction rate.
It was no invention; it was our Constitutional right to security. The differences are we had longer memories back then, a Democrat was President, and too many today are too stupid to realize that in this war our lives, liberty, and pursuit of happiness are on the line.
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Budget crunch cuts illegal immigrants' health care
Giffords pushes for feds to act on border, Mexico issues
Europe Hedges on Guantánamo Detainees
Rep. Nadler (D-NY) Slams Abuse of Power by Sheriff Joe Arpaio (1 min. YouTube video)
Border fences grow, as does debate that rages over them
Border fences make critics fear for the area's wildlife
Suspected illegal immigrants spotted in [drainage] pipe
Homeland Security plans for violence on U.S. border
Exclusive: Has Illegal Immigration’s Effect on Education Become the "Third Rail" of Politics?
Wal-Mart to Open 2 Hispanic-Focused Supermarkets ("Supermercado de Wal-Mart")
Obama Mulls Border Troops [video]
All Talk, No Action on Mexican Border
13 Million Illegal Immigrants Living in the United States
Drug cartels' new weaponry means war
Condi Rice: Immigration reform needed for people who 'crawl across the desert'
AG Holder Proves His Cowardice by Investigating Sheriff Joe Arpaio
Why Arizona's Sheriff Joe Arpaio must go - and soon (illegal alien lover BARF-fest)
Ritter would sign in-state tuition bill for illegal immigrants
Unbelievable Illegal Immigration Stats LA County (need source)
Obama reverses opposition to Mexican trucks
After Action Report—General Barry R McCaffrey USA (Ret), VISIT MEXICO [pdf]
Hillary Clinton to visit Mexico
U.S. Teenagers Killed For The Gulf Drug Cartel
Jobs Created By Stimulus Could Go to Illegal Aliens
Mexico drug cartels buying public support
Cocaine King - Mexico's most wanted man, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, is one of 38 new billionaires.
Wal-Mart looks to Hispanic market
GAO: Fake passports easy to get
BTTT
Congress created the military tribunal system that FDR used in the Quirin case. GWB had military tribunal and other systems that could have been used to prosecute the terrorists, but his administration crafted, without any input from Congress, its own system. AFAIK, the time duration of that artifice is unprecedented in US history, even Lincoln. The Hamdan case is the one that eventually forced the hand. And notice I put equal blame on Congress, for it KNEW it had a duty under the Constitution, but it neglected that duty.
-- our Constitutional right to security --
Heh.
reading the comments on one of these stories several weeks ago, and found one from an idiot liberal (I know, I know)
that the subject in question, who blew himself and a dozen iraqis to piecies after being release from gitmo, the lib said “gee, its no surprize the guy wanted to get revenge on the people who detained him illegally”
the possibility that the guy was a terrorist all along and deserved to be in jail, could never enter the clowns mind.
When it comes and the Liberals are crying about it, I'm just going to laugh and say "Hey, The War On Terror is just a bumper sticker, man! Suck it up!".
New Yorkers are exceptions to the Lib rules regarding terrorism.
They have been a target more than once, & they know they remain a prime target for terrorism.
Personally, I think we should shoot the terrorists upon capture! I believe in the death penalty for all murderers.
Congressional Declaration of War on JapanDecember 8, 1941
JOINT RESOLUTION Declaring that a state of war exists between the Imperial Government of Japan and the Government and the people of the United States and making provisions to prosecute the same.
Whereas the Imperial Government of Japan has committed unprovoked acts of war against the Government and the people of the United States of America:
Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
That the state of war between the United States and the Imperial Government of Japan which has thus been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared; and the President is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Imperial Government of Japan; and, to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all of the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States.
Approved, December 8, 1941, 4:10 p.m. E.S.T.
US Declaration of War against Germany
December 11, 1941
The President's Message
To the Congress of the United States:
On the morning of Dec. 11 the Government of Germany, pursuing its course of world conquest, declared war against the United States. The long-known and the long-expected has thus taken place. The forces endeavoring to enslave the entire world now are moving toward this hemisphere. Never before has there been a greater challenge to life, liberty and civilization. Delay invites great danger. Rapid and united effort by all of the peoples of the world who are determined to remain free will insure a world victory of the forces of justice and of righteousness over the forces of savagery and of barbarism. Italy also has declared war against the United States.
I therefore request the Congress to recognize a state of war between the United States and Germany, and between the United States and Italy.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
The War Resolution
Declaring that a state of war exists between the Government of Germany and the government and the people of the United States and making provision to prosecute the same.
Whereas the Government of Germany has formally declared war against the government and the people of the United States of America:
Therefore, be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that the state of war between the United States and the Government of Germany which has thus been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared; and the President is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the government to carry on war against the Government of Germany; and to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all of the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States
If you have a source for a statute by Congress in addition to those declarations, please provide it.
It is unnecessary for present purposes to determine to what extent the President as Commander in Chief has constitutional power to create military commissions without the support of Congressional legislation. For here Congress has authorized trial of offenses against the law of war before such commissions. We are concerned only with the question whether it is within the constitutional power of the national government to place petitioners upon trial before a military commission for the offenses with which they are charged.Ex Parte Quirin, 317 U.S. 1 (1942)
“For here Congress has authorized trial of offenses against the law of war before such commissions.”
No statute was written; the Supreme Court relied solely upon the declarations of war.
The statute was preexisting. The Quirin case, link provided above, gives the particulars. SCOTUS did not rely solely on the declarations of war plus its own (SCOTUS's) foo-foo dust.
In comparison, the military commission system struck down by SCOTUS in Hamdan did not exist by virtue of an enactment of Congress. The administration claimed a unilateral executive power (to create a system of trial by military commission) that is reserved to Congress, by the US Constitution.
Yes, I agree. And the interval of time could have been used to prosecute the miscreants and deliver justice, instead of arguing that the executive has the power, under the US Constitution, to create its own court system out of thin air.
And to reiterate, the blame belongs to Congress as well. It knew (there is plenty of evidence of knowledge in the Congressional Record circa 2001-2002) that an executive-created tribunal lacking Congressional support (i.e., laws providing for the creation/operation) is constitutionally infirm.
As I’ve said many times and the NY Daily News added this morning, “They should be dead.”
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