The trial of alleged Al Qaeda accomplice Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani has resulted in an acquittal on all major terrorism charges in New York. Ghailani was charged with crimes related to the 1998 suicide bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. I will be discussing the verdict tonight on Hardball.
Ghailani, a Tanzanian, was convicted only of one count of conspiracy to damage or destroy U.S. property but cleared of 276 counts of murder and attempted murder. The important thing to note here is that this is a unanimous series of acquittal votes — not some hung jury.
The Obama Administration made little secret that it wanted the trial in New York — the scene of the 9-11 attacks. It did not help with the jury which found the evidence (as opposed to the emotions) lacking. The government still intends to seek life without parole on that one conspiracy charge.
In a truly disturbing response to the verdict, Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) denounced the jury verdict as “a total miscarriage of justice” and insisted “this tragic verdict demonstrates the absolute insanity of the Obama administration’s decision to try Al Qaeda terrorists in civilian courts.” Of course, no one would accuse New Yorkers as being ambivalent on terrorism.
Nevertheless, Rep. King’s solution to a jury of citizens acquitting an accused person is to rig the system to avoid such juries in the future. It is the most raw demonstration that the interest in the tribunal system is the view that it is outcome determinative and pre-set for convictions. Rep. King appears to be joining the Queen of Hearts that we must have a system that guarantees “sentence first, verdict afterwards.”
Here is tonight’s debate with Governor Pataki on Hardball (title on youtube is not my own):
Source: LA Times
Jonathan Turley
Peter King.
Dick Armey.
John Boehner.
While being a boy named Sue may leave scars, some names are monikers so damning that they can earn the owner a place in the annals of right wing conservatism’s mostly made up history out of sheer appropriateness if not an appreciation for the double entendre.
God bless the jury system!
The courageous jury system is the example which the spineless congress and administrations who whore justice should take note of.
And you shameless prosecutors who have to stoop to 200 plus counts so you don’t lose your allowance, get a fragging grip wannabees.
Oh, and Rep. King, try to find the remnants of your cognitive brain which your lizard brain has decimated (PS: don’t lick the wax out of your ears while you are on TV dude).
Face it folks, we have passed peak sanity.
http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2010/11/peak-of-sanity.html
As we knew they would, the torture chickens have come home to roost.
rcampbell:
“Republicans/Teabaggers:
They hate America and Americans because they hate our freedoms and have contempt for our Constitution.”
********************
It’s not malice, RC. I think it’s more fear and ignorance. They really think they are doing the right thing. Like Aurelius, I ‘ve come to the realization embodied here:
“Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil.”
— Marcus Aurelius (Meditations)
I don’t know much about Rep. King, but I’ve read that Mr. Ghailani confessed to the murders for which he was tried. Is it possible that that is what sparked Rep. King to comment as he did?
“Left” and “right” meet again. There are few people in the current govt. who value the rule of law or our Constitution. The destruction of the rule of law is the basis for the disintegration of our society. War and financial criminals are at large to grab even greater sums of money from their original crimes. The Obama administration feels indefinite detention and the killing of American citizens without judicial review is “lawful”. People who committe(d) torture and financial crimes hold key posts in the govt. There is no justice in the US and we will pay dearly for this as a nation (as we already are). Here is what our nation just did to a child soldier. We should be ashamed.
” Khadr, Omar (Canada)
The most famous child prisoner in Guantánamo (out of at least 22 juveniles held at the prison throughout its history), Khadr, a Canadian citizen, was seized after a firefight in Afghanistan in July 2002, when he was just 15 years old, and, although severely wounded, was interrogated as soon as he left the hospital at Bagram airbase, and was then threatened with rape and subjected to abuse. He arrived at Guantánamo in October 2002, just after his 16th birthday, where he was also subjected to abuse, through a variety of the “enhanced interrogation techniques” introduced at the time — including prolonged isolation, sleep deprivation, and short-shackling for long periods in painful positions, which typically lasted until prisoners were obliged to urinate or defecate on themselves. On one such occasion, he reported that the guards used him as a mop to clean up his own urine. Despite the obligations of both the US and Canadian governments to rehabilitate rather than punish juvenile prisoners, under the terms of the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, the US authorities never treated Khadr with appropriate care, and, in 2006, put him forward for a trial by Military Commission, and the Canadians, ignoring their obligations, sent agents to interrogate him in 2003, and never sought his return to Canada, despite court rulings confirming that his rights had been violated. After the Commissions were ruled illegal by the US Supreme Court in June 2006, and were revived that fall by Congress, Khadr was charged again in 2007, and was charged again in November 2009, after the Obama administration revived the Commissions. In October 2010, he was persuaded to accept a plea deal, giving him an eight-year sentence (one more year in Guantánamo, followed by seven in Canada) in exchange for admitting that he had thrown a grenade on the day of his capture that killed a US soldier (a charge he had previously denied) and also, outrageously, accepting that he was an “alien unprivileged enemy belligerent,” who had no right to be in a combat situation at all. After a week of hearings, a military jury delivered its own verdict, giving him a 40-year sentence. This was irrelevant because of the plea deal, but it helped the Obama administration look tough on terrorism, even though the proceedings were a disgrace, as the US was alone in thinking it appropriate to try a former child prisoner for war crimes which are not recognized by the rest of the world, and which were, instead, dreamt up by Congress in 2006, and maintained under President Obama last year.” Andy Worthington
“It is the most raw demonstration that the interest in the tribunal system is the view that it is outcome determinative and pre-set for convictions. Rep. King appears to be joining the Queen of Hearts that we must have a system that guarantees “sentence first, verdict afterwards.”
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“Sure were gonna give em a fair trial, then we’re gonna hang ’em.”
~Judge Roy Bean (King?)
aramis
1, November 18, 2010 at 1:14 pm
I find it disturbing that a U.S. court ruled that this man had been tortured, and yet nothing is being done to hold accountable those who ordered, and carried out said torture.
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Me too!
King is just one more example of the idiocy that has taken over the Republican party. I guess evidence doesn’t mean anything in Rep. King’s world. As mentioned earlier, maybe if President Bush hadn’t illegally ordered the torture of detainees this Defendant might have been convicted of additional counts. Then again, did it ever occur to Rep. King that the system actually worked the way it is supposed to work?
Couldn’t King’s problem be taken care of with proper voir dire–“Can you agree that a defendant accused of terrorism should be convicted on all charges regardless of the evidence presented?”
I find it disturbing that a U.S. court ruled that this man had been tortured, and yet nothing is being done to hold accountable those who ordered, and carried out said torture.
It also speaks volumes about the “show trial” nature of this conviction that, even before the trial began, there were assurances made by the Obama administration that this man would never walk free regardless of the verdict.
This may be a political “win” for this administration, but it would be going a bit far to say there was any “justice” served here.
rcampbell,
I like it … going to use it …
Have you been deputized yet? 🙂
Republicans/Teabaggers:
They hate America and Americans because they hate our freedoms and have contempt for our Constitution.
FYI:
The Critics and Necessary Allies on Cuomo’s Transition Team
Monday, November 15, 2010
“On the committee is also Republican Rep. Peter King of Long Island, who is expected to chair the Homeland Security Committee when the GOP takes over the House of Representatives in January. Among his key pieces of legislation is a bill to ban states from issuing drivers licenses to undocumented residents (an issue that the prior governor supported, but ultimately dropped amid heated opposition). King also has legislation to provide “qualified immunity from civil liability” for anyone who reports suspected terrorist activities.”
http://www.wnyc.org/articles/its-free-country/2010/nov/15/critics-and-necessary-allies-cuomos-transition-team/
eniobob,
Thanks
James M.
5 o’clock est.
I haven’t been following the case at all. Does anybody know what time Hardball comes on?
Just catching a brief discussion on the radio about this,and an attorney was saying that King was insulting the jurors and the jury system because the verdict didn’t come to his liking.
The real question is when DOESN’T Rep. Peter King make an ass of himself with comments like these.
It is funny that Republicans blame Obama for this, when a lot of witness testimony was excluded because it was obtained via Bush administration torture…