The Ramzi Yousef Standard (Plea Bargains for Terrorists)

Wall Street Journal ^ | Jan. 6, 2009 | Staff

[La Enchiladita]

The failed terrorist attack aboard Northwest Flight 253 is proving to be highly educational, not least about the Obama Administration and its pre-September 11 antiterror worldview. Yesterday, the White House reversed itself on repatriating Guantanamo detainees to chaotic Yemen, a step in the right direction. Now if it would only revisit its Ramzi Yousef standard for interrogating captured terrorists like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

Ramzi Yousef, you may recall, was the mastermind of the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 who is now serving a life sentence in a supermax prison in Colorado. The Obama Administration likes to cite his arrest, conviction and imprisonment as a model for its faith that the criminal justice system is the best way to handle terrorist detainees.

"Our courts and our juries, our citizens, are tough enough to convict terrorists. The record makes that clear," said President Obama last May 21 at the National Archives. "Ramzi Yousef tried to blow up the World Trade Center. He was convicted in our courts and is serving a life sentence in U.S. prisons."

On June 9, 2009, the Justice Department repeated the claim in a fact sheet arguing for handling terrorists in criminal courts:

"1993 World Trade Center Bombing: After two trials, in 1993 and 1997, six defendants were convicted and sentenced principally to life in prison for detonating a truck bomb in the garage of the World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring hundreds more. One of the defendants convicted at the second trial was Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the attack."

[La Enchiladita]

Yet as far as we know, Yousef told U.S. interrogators little or nothing about KSM's plots and strategy once he was in U.S. custody. This isn't surprising, since once he was in the criminal justice system Yousef was granted a lawyer and all the legal protections against cooperating with U.S. interrogators. To this day, we don't recall any official claim that Yousef has provided useful intelligence of the kind that KSM, Abu Zubaydah and other al Qaeda leaders later did when they were interrogated by the CIA.

All of this is directly relevant to the Administration's rash decision to indict Abdulmutallab on criminal charges immediately after his arrest in Detroit on Christmas weekend.

[La Enchiladita]

John Brennan, the top White House counterterrorism official, tried to defend the criminal indictment on the Sunday talk shows ... [Said he] "Well, first of all, we have different ways of obtaining information from individuals according to that criminal process. A lot of people, as they understand what they're facing and their lawyers recognize that there is advantage to talking to us in terms of plea agreements, we're going to pursue that. So—and we are continuing to look at ways that we can extract that information from him."

A plea agreement? Mr. Brennan seems to be saying that now that he has a public defender, Abdulmutallab has clammed up. But the Administration might be able to coax him to talk if it offers him a lower sentence or some kind of other legal concession, even though he tried to kill nearly 300 people aboard an American airliner.

A plea agreement?!! God help us and protect us from this clueless administration, top down.

[Dinah Lord]

I thought my head would explode when I heard Brennan wax lyrical about the plea deal that this rotten SOB was going to be offered, La Enchiladita.

[livius]

Makes no sense whatsoever. There’s no downside to terrorism for these people. Pretty soon we’ll be giving the members of AQ ticker tape parades when they arrive.

[IrishCatholic]

I would give him a chance to go free under the following circumstances:
Put him in a room with Brennan. Give him a framing hammer. Tell him you will give him a free ticket to Yemen if he beats the brains out of Brennan.
Then ask if Brennan wants to offer a plea deal or have two Marines come in and drag that POS to Guantanamo. If he isn't too tired from running for his life around the room I bet the top Administration official would vote for Cuba.

[hal ogen]

Maybe the new anti-”terrorism” strategy the nobama minions will develop will involve (a) selling the rights to bombs (helps us have more money for economic stimulus); (2) we then place the bombs and blow up buildings and people (creating shovel ready jobs in graveyards and reconstruction and so forth); (3) we identify the “sponsor” of the bombs and put them on a no-fly list (this saves on their carbon footprint). So many issues are resolved with this approach that they will be hailed as the heroes and intelligencia that they obviously are!!!!! nobama! nobama! nobama!

Excuse me for as moment, I just threw up in my mouth..........................................................................................................................................

[livius]

By George, I think you’ve got it! It’s all a strategy dreamed up by our Great Leader in his brilliance, and some of us are just too obtuse to see it. Not to mention those of us who are ungrateful enough to refuse to sacrifice ourselves for Obama’s good...

[Western Phil]

Ramzi Yousef tried to blow up the World Trade Center. He was convicted in our courts and is serving a life sentence in U.S. prisons.

Jailing Ramzi Yousef for the World Trade Center bombing is sort of like jailing Al Compone for tax evasion. His conviction left a lot of loose ends. In addition to traveling with an Iraqi passport he was the primary force behind the scheme to down a dozen airliners simultaneously in the Pacific. This fellow certainly should have been waterboarded. The Yousef situation is certainly not a good example to use to justify civilian trials for terrorists.

[La Enchiladita]

Remember John sKerry and Barbara Dumb-as-a-Box of Rocks-er pronouncing “climate change” as a national security issue??? Hey, we think it’s satire. They don’t.

[La Enchiladita]

“The Yousef situation is certainly not a good example to use to justify civilian trials for terrorists.”

That would be clear to someone with a brain, or who doesn’t have some other-than-patriotic agenda.....

[GOP_Lady]

To be added or removed from the "Wall Street Journal" Ping List, FReepmail GOP_Lady.

[jazusamo]

Amen, Ladita! There have been so many ridiculous decisions in the year Zer0 has been in office you’d think they’d be running out of them but they just keep making them.

[livius]

Hey, we think it’s satire.

Every day when I read the latest doings of the Bambi administration, I have to check to make sure it's not somebody's warped parody or sick joke. And every day - I find out that it's true.

[La Enchiladita]

Thanks, GOP Lady:-)