The Obama Administration’s belated decision to reverse course and proceed with military commission trials for 9/11 Mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four associates shows the Administration’s disregard for reality has now come full circle. We can thank the newly elected members of Congress for this turnaround, as they sought to represent the will and wishes of most Americans who did not want to grant terrorists trying to destroy our way of life the same Constitutional rights granted to U.S. citizens. This is also a victory for the family members of the 9/11 victims and for all Americans fed up with political correctness and waiting for justice to be served on those who committed the unconscionable mass murder of 3,000 innocent Americans on 9/11 nearly a decade ago.
Attorney General Holder’s announcement that “Congress made me do it” came less than 24 hours before many family members of the 9/11 victims were planning to descend on Capitol Hill and testify before a key Senate Committee as to the Obama Administration’s failure to act in seeking justice for the 9/11 actions. Perhaps, the White House, watching its approval numbers plummet, changed course after realizing that on this very sensitive issue, almost 70% of Americans, regardless of their political affiliation, do not want terrorists, and in particular Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his associates, tried in American civilian courts.
As they await their trial, Khalid and associates can continue living in what these Gitmo prisoners term in Arabic, “Al muntazah al-dini lilmujaheden al Muslimin," “The Religious Resort for Islamic holy warriors.” They can continue enjoying their three halal meals a day in accordance with their religious dictates. They have radio, television, soccer games, air-conditioning, clean clothes, and servants - meaning American GIs, who wait on them hand and foot. They have Islamic chaplains and are handed Korans by people so concerned as not to offend, that they wear latex gloves and carry the book with two hands. Oh, and by the way, Khalid Sheik Mohammad has exercise equipment in his prison cell.
As the trial now goes to the military commission for adjudication, let’s quickly recount 5 reasons why Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his associates should not have been tried in the civilian court system:
1. To try him in civilian court would have given him the world stage he desired for declaring Jihad against the United States. He would have used his time in the limelight to share his fundamentalist 7th Century interpretation of the Koran that teaches that the violent later passages supersede and replace the earlier peaceful verses - a doctrine known as "Abrogation." This doctrine leads followers like KSM, Major Nidal Hasan and others to claim Koranic sanctioning of their violent actions. Why would we give him such a platform?
2. The case against him would have been in jeopardy, as much of the information would have been declared inadmissible due to national security concerns. Even though Attorney General Holder all but guaranteed conviction of KSM and his cronies (a guarantee that undermined the very rationale the Administration offered for holding the trial in civilian court system) the hard reality of the matter is that KSM and his associates acted as enemy combatants / terrorists. To allow their defense attorneys in the discovery stages of the trial to have access to sensitive national security information that led to their apprehension would have been unacceptable to reveal and therefore inadmissible in court.
3. The civilian jury members would have had a target put on their heads, for the rest of their lives. Could you imagine if you were called for jury duty and had to vote to convict an individual with documented ties to an international network of terrorists that included Osama Bin Laden? Think that person might feel they have a target on their head?
4. The unbelievable cost to taxpayers to host and protect such a trial would have been staggering. NYC would have paid in the neighborhood of $1 Billion dollars just to provide security for the court cases themselves.
5. It would have incentivized more jihad attacks against civilian targets. Why attack military targets where you will get less attention? If civilian targets warrant civilian trials with the corresponding publicity that comes with it, then expect more civilian targets from the jihadists.
Common sense and the will of the people won over political correctness. Whatever the reasons for the Obama Administration’s reversal, we at ACT! for America welcome the decision.
Brigitte Gabriel is an international terrorism analyst and a two times New York Times best-selling author of Because They Hate and They Must Be Stopped. She is the President of ACT for America, the largest national security grassroots movement in the United States. She can be reached via www.actforamerica.org
