Show Trial
I would rather not have a trial of KSM than have the show trial it is shaping up to be. I didn't think anything could be more offensive to human rights than indefinite detention without due process but this may be worse.
Posts tagged ‘KSM’
My Problem with the KSM Trial
I have been saying for years that some sort of due process needs to be applied to Gitmo detainees. I am not knowledgeable enough to know if this should be a civilian trial or military tribunal or what, but just the fact that they are non-citizens does not give us the right to detain them indefinitely without due process. Yeah, I get the POW/battlefield analogy, but one also has to reasonably admit the nature of this process today is different than in, say, the defined battlefields with combatants in uniforms in WWII. The very question of who is a combatant is unclear, so it merits more due diligence to make sure these assertions are made correctly.
Anyway, I suppose I am happy KSM is getting some sort of due process. But I must say I absolutely hate the precedent being set here -- no, not the one the Conservatives are worried about, bringing a terrorist to trial in a civilian court. I don't like the precedent of a trial where the government promises that there is already a pre-determined outcome. US Attorney General Holder seems to be saying there is no possibility of acquittal, but a trial without a possibility of acquittal is not a trial.
