They didn't get up, shout Allahu Akbar and then detonate their explosive vests, but their actions of denial, feet-dragging and general scoffing did show their contempt of the legal system, and illustrated how Islamists have no regard whatsoever for law and justice outside of Islam and sharia. They controlled this arraignment, not the authorities in charge, and when you allow the defendants to exert their own brand of justice you lose not just credibility but also the ability to defend the system you are operating under.
We are doomed if we continue to let Khalid Sheik Muhammad and his cronies dictate how the trail will proceed. Lets hope the Obama administration holds to the highest standards of American jurisprudence.
Unfortunately, history shows that the standards upheld will be to the benefit of KSM, et al rather than the foundational ethics and morals of America.
NEW YORK -- Moans, sighs and exclamations erupted Saturday as relatives of 9-11 victims watched four closed-circuit TV feeds from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that showed the self-proclaimed mastermind of the attacks and co-defendants trying to slow their arraignment, a move that drew outbursts from viewers of "Come on, are you kidding me?"
"It's actually a joke; it feels ridiculous," said Jim Riches, whose firefighter son, Jimmy, died at the World Trade Center. Riches watched the hearing from a movie theater at Fort Hamilton in New York City, one of four U.S. military bases where the arraignment was broadcast live for victims' family members, survivors and emergency personnel who responded to the attacks.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other defendants were arraigned on charges that include terrorism and murder, the first time in more than three years that they appeared in public. During the hearing, they generally refused to cooperate.
Like other relatives, Riches expressed frustration.
"It's been a mess for 11 years," Riches said as he stood in the rain during a break in the proceedings. "It looks like it's going to be a very long trial. ... They want what they want."
Riches, himself a retired firefighter who worked digging up remains in the days after 9-11, said he hoped that if convicted the five men would be executed.
"I saw what they did to our loved ones -- crushed them to pieces," he said.
About 60 people representing 30 families were in the theater at Fort Hamilton, where the military provided chaplains and grief counselors, Riches said. The other bases providing feeds were Fort Devens in Massachusetts, Joint Base McGuire Dix in New Jersey and Fort Meade in Maryland, the only one open to the public.
At Fort Hamilton, Lee Hanson said he became deeply angry as he watched the delays being caused by men he blames for the death of his son, daughter-in-law and 9-11's youngest victim -- his granddaughter, 2-year-old Christine Hanson. All were aboard United Flight 175, the second plane to crash into the twin towers.
"They praise Allah. I say, 'Damn you!'" said the silver-haired retiree from Eaton, Conn.
Read it all
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/05/05/3938692/theyre-engaging-in-jihad-in-a.html#storylink=cpy
No comments:
Post a Comment