Think about that. All the talk by supporters of this move invariably includes:
They are guilty. Guilty now, long before any trial in the United States.
This isn't just the Justice Department prosecutorial team. These are Congress members, Senators and Representatives. Guilty. GUILTY.
Wait a minute.
We were under the belief, maybe mistaken, that in the United States of America, we operate under a Justice system where one is innocent until proven beyond reasonable doubt guilty.
And we were under the belief, maybe mistaken, prosecuters don't select an area of the country to put someone on trial because they know beforehand (maybe from demographic surveys) what the likely beliefs of potential jurors are (as a demographic) and choose the location because they know 99 percent of the potential jury pool are of a particular race, particular religious belief, particular socioeconomic status, etc. where it's likely a guilty verdict will be brought.
This isn't to say we should have had since after September 11, 2001 the so-called Patriot Act (where evidence can be obtained without a warrant per the regular so-called legal system). It isn't to say we should have had a President (and the next and the next) enabled to tag someone as an enemy combatant and incarcerate the individual for some 8 years without any Constitutional rights.
The Gutatanimo Bay 'prisoners' as Michael Goodwin calls them, are not merely prisoners, they are enemy combatants.
They had no Constitutional rights guaranteed to anybody in the United States of America... until a Supreme Court case in 2004.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=enemy+combatant+rights&btnG=Google+Search&rlz=1R2SKPB_enUS349&aq=f&oq=&aqi=
Supreme Court: Detainees and Enemy Combatant Rights
Elisa Massimino
Human Rights First
Monday, June 28, 2004; 2:00 PM
The Supreme Court ruled today in two cases regarding anti-terrorism legislation and the rights of prisoners and "enemy combatants." The court decided that suspected terrorists must be allowed access to the American justice system to contest their detention...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12065-2004Jun28.html
Meanwhile Michael Goodwin:
This trial's an error
Last Updated: 12:15 PM, November 15, 2009
Take the iconic "I Love New York" poster and plunge a dagger into its heart. That's what the Obama administration is doing by bringing the mastermind of 9/11 and other terror freaks here for trial.
We don't deserve this. Why are we being punished again?
Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to ship Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay prisoners to Manhattan for federal trials is beyond bad judgment.
It is a radical call that puts his leftist legal theories over public safety and common sense. The war on terror is being relabeled as a crime problem, in the very shadow of Ground Zero.
Mohammed and his murderous crew don't belong in civilian courts, where they will get defendant rights designed for ordinary criminal suspects. They declared war on our nation, were captured on foreign battlefields and deserve no presumption of innocence or other constitutional protections.
They'll use our liberties to turn the trial into propaganda for their warped cause. Their images and words will fly around the world as fodder for a new generation of jihadists. The federal courthouse and detention center will become a fortress. The judge, prosecutors, witnesses, federal agents and jury will need protection, some for years. It's madness.
New York already took a big hit for the team. The 9/11 attacks were aimed at America, and it is sacrilege to the dead and the living to bring these defendants back and invite another attack.
Here's an idea: Put the trial in Chicago...
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/this_trial_an_error_NEddBtLsizqB25L5L1SLhJ#ixzz0X7siTmQT
No. Not New York. Not Chicago.
Put the trial of the 21st Century in Washington DC. If there is nothing to fear... If there is no place that becomes unsafe... If there is no way the federal government will lose no matter where these guys are sent... then put the trial smack in the center of our national government.
A jury of one's peers? That's the idea.
Net the Truth Online
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