Posted on 10/11/2010 10:26:55 AM PDT by jazusamo
If President Obama needed a clarifying moment to help him decide whether to try Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in civilian court, a federal judge's decision last week to bar the testimony of a key witness in the trial of Ahmed Ghailani should have provided it.
Ghailani's prosecution for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in East Africa was supposed to be a slam dunk, which Attorney General Eric Holder would then hold up as evidence that civilian courts could handle the prosecutions of other Guantanamo detainees with more complicated cases. But then Judge Lewis Kaplan threw a wrench in Holder's plans, declaring that the government's star witness -- the man who delivered five crates of TNT to Ghailani -- cannot testify because he was first identified by Ghailani during coercive CIA questioning. The loss of this witness is a potentially fatal blow to the prosecution's case. Instead of a slam dunk, Holder is now facing a catastrophe of his own making.
In the wake of the judge's ruling, some critics (including The Post editorial board) have tried to argue that the Ghailani case shows the folly of enhanced interrogation techniques, not the folly of civilian trials for terrorists. If anything, the Ghailani case proves the opposite. Earlier this year, Ghailani's lawyers sought to have the charges against their client dismissed, arguing that his lengthy detention by the CIA had denied him his right to a speedy trial. The Obama Justice Department responded by providing the court with detailed evidence showing that Ghailani's CIA interrogation had produced "crucial, real-time intelligence about senior al-Qaeda leaders and al-Qaeda plots." After reviewing this intelligence, Kaplan rejected the defense motion, ruling that "the CIA Program was effective in obtaining useful intelligence from Ghailani," that "this valuable intelligence...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
......Holder is now facing a catastrophe of his own making. ...
It can be argued that the case went to trial for the specific purpose of getting the moonbats off his back. There will be no more such trials.
Deliberately botched.
I tend to agree and hope that’s correct.
Yep, the fix was/is in.
Next Obozo will deliberately loose both the Afghan and Iraq wars, after they have already been won.
The entire Zer0-Holder Justice department is incompetent, and malfeasant.
reference bump
“Deliberately botched.”
I’ve been toying with the notion that maybe (call me an optimist) the judge was trying to say “Get these cases out of civilian courts.” Put yourself in his shoes-what would be the quickest way to do that? If he complained, the case would just get assigned to another judge. I’m not saying this is what happened, I’m just sayin’...
There’s no doubt that both have broken some laws and deliberately ignored others. Holder should be forced to resign after investigations by the new House.
One of the great things about the Republicans winning the House is they will be able to crucify Holder, the worst of the worst in Obama’s cabinet.Holder is a walking debacle and every time he makes outrageous decisions to protect terrorists, the Dems who control Congress can prevent the Republicans from calling him to the Hill to skewer him.After November, the Republicans will have a poster child they can call to the Hill every week as a reminder to the public of what they have wrought by putting Obama in the White House.
Precisely so. A catastrophe of his own design and intent.
Will any Muslim captured in a foreign land and incarcerated at Gitmo be executed on Baraq Hussein Obama’s watch for an act of terrorism? Not bloody likely!!
Was this kinda like the FBI informant warning the FBI about the World Trade Center bombings in 1993. In other words, the CIA let it happen on purpose? LIHOP! LIHOP! (-:
It’s completely false to think that the judge’s ruling has thrown a wrench in Holder’s plans for the trial.
There’s every reason to believe that Holder, acting on his own beliefs and on Obama’s orders, has intended all along for these dirtbags (the defendants, not the judges) to be either released outright on a dismissal of charges, or to be acquitted. There’s every reason to also believe that the second point of it all has been to help enrich the attorneys involved in the defense of the dirtbags, and to assist in directing the gigs their way. They know the law, and their attorney buddies, some of whom must be close to the judges who will be involved in the cases, know enough of trial procedure to have seen this coming, and, indeed, been counting on it to help achieve their ends.
So far, it’s win-win for Holder, and, by extension, Obama. Mission accomplished.
More evidence this WH/DOJ is Anti-American. The goal is for this guy to go free.
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