Posted on 04/05/2008 6:11:27 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
ACLU wants to help defend alleged Sept. 11 mastermind
By Carol Rosenberg
McClatchy Newspapers
The American Civil Liberties Union, which for years has scorned Pentagon military commissions as "kangaroo courts," announced Friday it will try to provide top civilian defense attorneys for alleged terrorists facing trial at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba -- with special emphasis on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Former Attorney General Janet Reno is among top lawyers who have endorsed the $8.5 million effort, which will help coordinate and defray the attorneys' expenses.
ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said a major thrust will be to defend Mohammed, who military officials say has confessed to masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks and other terrorist acts, including the beheading in Pakistan of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl.
The ACLU chose to focus on his defense, Romero said, because he appears to be "the government's top priority in the prosecution. And whether or not they are able to convict Khalid Sheikh Mohammed under these rules may well determine the fate of the almost 300 other men who are detained at Guantánamo."
Mohammed was held in secret CIA custody until September 2006, and the CIA has admitted subjecting him to waterboarding while he was being questioned. Waterboarding simulates drowning and is considered torture by many human-rights advocates.
Mohammed's case "is likely to raise the most significant issues of torture, hearsay evidence and access to counsel," Romero said.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
I always knew the ACLU was the enemy..... How could any American lawyer in his right mind defend someone like this? Come to think of it, we are at war - did we give any of our enemies lawyers and a court hearing in WW2?
Unbelievable and reading this was a crappy way to start the weekend.......
And another thing... who is paying the %8.5 mil? The taxpayer? I want a refund....
“I don’t know who hates us the most - the terrorist or the ACLU...”
Apparantly, it is the ACLU.
$8.5 million (so far) for defense of the 9-11 mastermind? This may set a record in American juriprudence for amount spent in defense.
Who the hell precisely is donating this money?
They are getting a tax deduction for a donation to a not for profit.
We need to start calling this what it is TREASON.
That kid-burning bulldagger Reno belongs in Git’mo with the rest of the traitors and terrorists.
Reno = the gay golem.
Former Attorney General Janet Reno is among top lawyers who have endorsed the $8.5 million effort, which will help coordinate and defray the attorneys' expenses.
That Bull-Dyke 'beach' needs to be waterboarded and sent to GITMO.
I agree with your sentiment but you need a better analogy. You might want to read up on the Nuremberg trials.
Janet Reno? Now, there was a real piece of work.
-Traveler
That buys a lot of bullcrap and reasonable doubt from silver tongue law twisters hungry for accolades.
The ACLU are terrorists...they’re legal terrorists who work on behalf of America’s enemies. In their entire history, it has never been otherwise.
Janet Reno will probably burn in Hell for all of the evil deeds she has been a part of.
This factoid needs to be saved and brought out in the fall if Hillary manages to snatch the democrat nomination from Obama.
It speaks to the horrible judgment of the Clintons and is ample evidence that a President Hillary would infest her White House with terrorist sympathizers and enablers.
I think you do...we all do.
Isn’t it funny how the same rotten names keep bubbling up?
Is this ALL that our nation has to offer as Attorney General, Governor of Florida, etc etc.?
GET OFFA THE F-ing STAGE!!!
If this was WWII, Romero and his entire staff would be in prison, according to FDR’s executive order of 1942.
I don’t have a problem with Mohamed being defended by someone, but Reno was once the U.S.’s “top lawyer”. It shows you the type of people who make up the Dem party.
A lot of money or a high profile case could tilt the justice scale especially with a sympathetic judge ruling on evidence or argument (Both for the prosecution or defense, civil or criminal).
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