Obama advisers say bin Laden can appeal to U.S. courts: YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING!?!

Barack Obama has expressed support for the Supreme Court’s decision in favor of civilian prosecution of terrorism suspects, and his advisers said Tuesday that if Osama bin Laden were captured, he too should face civilian prosecution. – AP Bill Sammon, The Examiner 2008-06-18 07:00:00.0 Current rank: # 13 of 6,452

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama’s foreign policy advisers said Tuesday that Osama bin Laden, if captured, should be allowed to appeal his case to U.S. civilian courts, a privilege opposed by John McCain.

Responding to questions from The Examiner, Sen. John Kerry and former White House counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke said bin Laden would benefit from last week’s Supreme Court decision giving terrorism suspects habeas corpus, the right to appeal their military detention to civilian courts.

“If he were to be brought back,” Clarke said of bin Laden, “the Supreme Court ruling holds on the right of habeas corpus.”

Kerry, who applauded the Supreme Court ruling, said it will be carried out by whichever candidate wins the presidency.

“The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that they have those rights,” he said. “If John McCain were president, he would have to give them those rights.”

Randy Scheunemann, McCain’s senior foreign policy adviser, said those rights should not be extended to bin Laden or the hundreds of terrorism suspects being held by the U.S. military at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“The individuals we hold at Guantanamo are very, very dangerous people,” Scheunemann said. “To give them full access to the federal courts and the criminal justice system is fraught with danger, moving forward, and likely to make America less safe, unlike Senator Obama’s claim of supporting the decision that it made America safer.”

On Monday, Obama applauded the civilian prosecution of terrorists before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“In previous terrorist attacks — for example, the first attack against the World Trade Center — we were able to arrest those responsible, put them on trial,” he told ABC. “They are currently in U.S. prisons, incapacitated.”

Obama said President Bush has relied too heavily on military prosecution of terrorists, which has “given a huge boost to terrorist recruitment in countries that say, ‘Look, this is how the United States treats Muslims.’ ”

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Obama wants “to take a step back to the failed policies that treated terrorism solely as a law enforcement matter, rather than a clear and present danger. Barack Obama appears to believe that terrorists should be treated like criminals — a belief that underscores his fundamental lack of judgment regarding our national security.”

The attack sounded familiar to Kerry, who was the Democratic presidential nominee four years ago.

“This is exactly what they tried to say back in 2004, and the record absolutely contradicts it,” Kerry told The Examiner. “Every Democrat voted to go to war and attack the Taliban and al Qaeda, the people who attacked us. That is not a [legalistic] approach.”

Fascinating that the odious moral weathervane that is Richard Clarke is quoted.

Here is an article that his fans on the Left will find inconvenient. It dates to back when he was humping Condi Rice’s leg, trying to get a promotion. Which he didn’t, and he’s been in a righteous state of pique ever since, glomming onto first John Kerry and now Barack Obama. Man’s a whore.

>>>

http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20040325-091451-8041r.htm

Excerpts from the August 2002 press briefing by Richard A. Clarke:

RICHARD CLARKE: There was no plan on al Qaeda that was passed from the
Clinton administration to the Bush administration ... In January 2001,
the incoming Bush administration was briefed on the existing strategy.
[They] decided to ... vigorously pursue the existing policy [and] ...
initiate a process to look at those issues which had been on the table
for a couple of years.

In their first meeting [the principles] changed the strategy by
authorizing the increase in funding [for covert action against al Qaeda]
five-fold, changing the policy on Pakistan, changing the policy on
Uzbekistan, changing the policy on the Northern Alliance assistance.
[They] then changed the strategy from one of rollback with al Qaeda ...
to a new strategy that called for the rapid elimination of al Qaeda.

QUESTION: What is your response to the suggestion in the [Aug. 12, 2002]
Time [magazine] article that the Bush administration was unwilling to
take on board the suggestions made in the Clinton administration because
of animus against ... the foreign policy?
CLARKE: I think if there was a general animus that clouded their vision,
they might not have kept the same guy dealing with [the] terrorism issue
... There was never a plan [in the Clinton administration].

QUESTION: What was the problem? Why was it so difficult for the Clinton
administration to make decisions on those issues?
CLARKE: Because they were tough issues. One of the big problems was that
Pakistan at the time was aiding the other side, was aiding the Taliban.
In the spring [of 2001], the Bush administration ... began to change
Pakistani policy. We began to offer carrots, which made it possible for
the Pakistanis ... [to] join us and to break away from the Taliban. So
that’s really how it started.

QUESTION: Had the Clinton administration ... prepared for a call for the
use of ground forces, special operations forces in any way?
CLARKE: There was never a plan in the Clinton administration to use
ground forces. The military was asked at a couple of points ... to think
about it. And they always came back and said it was not a good idea.
There was never a plan to do that.

QUESTION: You’re saying ... there was no plan; two, there was no delay;
and that actually the first changes since October of ‘98 were made in
the spring months just after the administration came into office?
CLARKE: You got it ...The other thing to bear in mind is the shift from
the rollback strategy to the elimination strategy. When President Bush
told us in March to stop swatting at flies and just solve this problem,
then that was the strategic direction that changed the [policy] from one
of rollback to one of elimination.

>>>>>While you can punish through the court system attempts at crimes and conspiracies, it is largely ineffective to prevent future acts. Try calling the cops if you suspect a crime will go down soon.<<<<

Any future KSMs will say “Oh hello FBI/CIA/DSS/Delta. I want a lawyer and a habeas corpus hearing in DC before I say anything else. Thanks.”

In fact KSM *did* say just that at the time of his capture in Pakistan, he didn’t realize that the rules had (temporarily) changed. So now everything is back to normal, pre-9/11 civilian legalisms and that kind of request must be honored.

BTW, KSM earned his mech. engineering degree in South Carolina, speaks fluent English, and like most AQ terrorists was trained in how to behave if captured.

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