WHY are the repubs SO concerned about an open trial for the 9-11 suspects?

[Philosoraptor]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/16/us/politics/16giuliani.html

Rudolph W. Giuliani, mayor of New York at the time of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said on Sunday that the Obama administration’s decision to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the attacks, in a civilian court in Manhattan would unnecessarily cost millions of dollars for security, create legal advantages for the defense and symbolically deny that the United States is at war with terrorism.

“It gives an unnecessary advantage to the terrorists and why would you want to give an advantage to the terrorists, and it poses risks for New York,” Mr. Giuliani said in an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.” He also interviewed on ABC’s “This Week” and “Fox News Sunday.”

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced on Friday that the United States would try Mr. Mohammed in the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan, just blocks from where the World Trade Center towers were brought down by the attacks, which killed almost 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. Mr. Holder said that a military commission would try five other detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, because they are accused of committing crimes overseas.

Mr. Giuliani, a former prosecutor whose national profile rose after Sept. 11, ran a short-lived campaign for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination and is being talked about as a leading prospect in the 2010 New York gubernatorial race. On “This Week,” Mr. Giuliani said that he would soon decide whether he would run for governor.
----------------------------------

WHY you ask? WHY have they hidden all the nine eleven suspects away from the public for all these years? WHY were they all denied fair trials like every other criminal? WHY?

Could it be that the previous bunch of gangsters in the White House have something to hide?

[Blue_In_AK]

1. Because the defense lawyers,

if they have any skills at all, will be bringing up the torture issues.

[SpiralHawk]

6. And the grossly embarassing & treasonous LIHOP issues

Which identify the Republicons for who they really are...

[Philosoraptor]

8. Being waterboarded 187 times will be interesting to hear about

[merh]

10. The judge will have to make a legal determination, subject to

SCOTUS review, as to whether the legal memos were sufficient to authorize torture or if they violated the law. The judge will have to make a legal call as to whether the torture violated the rights of the accused and the laws of the US.

If the detainee cannot be tried because of the crimes of Bushco the citizens may well demand that bushco face charges.

(FYI - the geneva conventions provide that POWs can be held until the hostilities are over, they cannot be punished without a trial, without due process.)

[kentuck]

12. Motion denied.

Irrelevant to the case at hand.

[timeforpeace]

16. That's a given. The fear is that they will go free. To join OJ in the search for the real killers.

[Xipe Totec]

2. Alternative headline: Mayor Giuliani accuses New York of being soft on terrorism n/t

[tridim]

3. My theory is that The Dick did some hands-on torture demos during his visits to Gitmo..

and that may come out in the testimony.

[BanTheGOP]

4. NO BRAINER...BUSH, CHENEY, and HALIBURTON WILL BE INDICTED FROM THE TRIAL!

I am writing a complete piece on my take on the trial, but I'm of the opinion that defense should subpoena EVERYONE involved in the republican crimes of torture, repression, and the

I would go SO FAR as to hope that, although the defendents may be guilty of their crimes, that jury members take note of ALL the crimes committed by BushCo. that they will, in fact, spur indictments against the republican thugs who pursued this crime in the first place. To that end, jury nullification should be the goal here.

This is a HUGE WIN for our progressive democratic movement, and will be the first nail in the coffin that will encase Bush, Cheney, and the other republicans who committed crimes that far exceed even the Nazi party in Germany. Pure and simple.

[AntiFascist]

24. Are we a nation of laws....

or a nation of crime families?

[DaveinJapan]

37. Far exceed even the Nazi party? That's ridiculous. nt

[HCE SuiGeneris]

5. The answer is

the level of subterfuge that the * regime wielded against the people of this country is on a scale that is almost unimaginable.

But then again, we both know that. :thumbsup:

[Mz Pip]

7. I try to pay attention

I really do, but I seem to be at a loss at remember what the Republican solution to this situation is. Are we supposed to just keep them locked up until they die?

And if they had a solution, why didn't they do it while they controlled the WH and Congress?

Seems a bit late for them to be whining about the 9/11 suspects when they had years to deal with them in their own way.

[emulatorloo]

19. Republican solution is military tribunals.

Those are secret, so that is what they are arguing for here.

[kentuck]

21. Bush and Cheney were addicted to secrecy.

They use fear like a club to beat the American people over the head. The trial in NYC will do a lot to restore the Constitution and the people's faith in our government.

[sandnsea]

22. And execution

If they had had their way, they'd have executed everybody at Guantanamo as fast as they could have.

[emulatorloo]

23. yep n/t

[sandnsea]

25. It's frightening really

If they could really have their way, they'd make the holocaust a distant memory. It's just horrifying they can't hear themselves when they talk about wiping a whole ethnic/religious group off the planet.

[DJ13]

9. A public trial ruins the terrorism fear card for the GOP to use in the future

Suddenly the terrorists are nothing but common criminals instead of a shadowy boogeyman to be exploited in future campaigns.

[tekisui]

11. They are scared of being witnesses and/or defendants?

[Posteritatis]

13. Accusation = guilt to most conservatives. They're constantly terrified of that being disproven. (nt)

[WeDidIt]

14. They're afraid the defendants will be convicted

If convicted, every argument they've made for how terrorism should be approached for the past eight years is thrown completely out as irrelevant.

[emulatorloo]

20. Pretty much. They are not big on the rule of law. THANKS FOR YOUR POST.

[ginnyinWI]

15. scared, lily-livered panty-waists?

That's what I see on the face of it. Oh but there are a lot more reasons. They don't want Obama to score a HUGE political win by actually bringing these guys to justice. Their guy couldn't get it done, and here comes Obama's Atty. General actually doing something.

But they are basically a fearful lot. They have been scaring each other silly with "Terra" for so long that they think these guys can walk through walls and destroy people with laser eye-beams. Their mere presence in New York City will cause some kind of Holocaust to happen because surely our military and civilian security won't be able to save us from these DREADED foes.

And once those criminals are treated exactly like criminals and sentenced for their crimes, it will start to destroy the mythology of the great "Jihad Warrior" that we must build up militarily for and fight wars with. They are not warriors and this is not and has never been an actual state-to-state war. And this trial will start to dismantle that myth.

[Wiley50]

34. 2stolen elections, 8 years of fear, hundreds tortured, millions murdered

You don't think they'll let him sit on smirky's lap to testify like the 911 hearings, do you?

When execution day comes, I want to be the one to push the plungers

[HysteryDiagnosis]

17. >>It gives an unnecessary advantage to the terrorists

Invading Iraq gave an unnecessary advantage to people who were already pissed at us. Invading Iraq also resulted in the deaths of thousands of our military personnel. Whomever decided to invade Iraq aided and abetted the enemy. Juliani, you need to look at the WTC7 collapse and ask yourself, wtf?

[patrice]

18. They are afraid of a terrorist strike on the trial itself or someother related venu.

[BREMPRO]

26. my impression is that this is mostly politics. They hate that it's being treated as a crime rather

than a war where all their defense contractor and war profiteer get rich and give them a cut through campaign contributions. It's also about their concern that Holder is defusing the fear button they have built up over the years, making these detainees into-bigger than life monsters to suit their political strategies of fear-mongering. Using the trial in New York to instill more fear in people. It's also just to be contrary to anything that Obama and his administration do- to be in opposition for the sake of political points.

[kentuck]

28. Bingo!

You got it!

[LostInAnomie]

27. They would have bitched either way.

That's what they do. If they would have had a military trial the Republicans would be scrambling for reasons why a public trial would have been better.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

29. You said it!

Could it be that the previous bunch of gangsters in the White House have something to hide?

Absolutely correct!

K&R

Thank you for your very intelligent post...

[marybourg]

30. Mr. Giuliani's utterances have always been calculated to further

the political ambitions of Mr Guiliani. When entering the U.S. Atty's Office when Mr Giuliani was the U.S. Att'y for the Southern Dist. of N.Y., one always had to squeeze past Mr. Giuliani, who was always posing for the cameras in the the tiny entrance lobby in front of the wall on which a huge replica of the Great Seal of the U.S. was hung.

[lurky]

31. I've been thinking about this.

It seems to me that the obvious legal defense for KSM will be to claim the whole thing was a Bush/Cheney MIHOP operation. Regardless of whether or not this is true (I take no position either way), it will force a high-profile reexamination of the Bush admin actions before, during, and after the attacks. They will be forced to prove it's not true. There will be a discovery process in which untold dirty little secrets could be revealed about what was really going on. Many embarrassing lies will be exposed.

And remember, he only need to convince a jury that there is a reasonable doubt as to the defendant's guilt. If he presents a compelling alternate story which many Americans believe already, and the jury acquits, that would be devastating to the Neocons.

[Philosoraptor]

32. ...............

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[gleaner]

35. I have often thought this .....

I have been amazed at the hysterical intensity of some of the Right Wing responses. Boehner was so agitated when he was discussing it at a press conference that he was shouting in a falsetto. I have never seen him like that. Bush never wanted them tried here and neither did anyone else in his administration even though the bombers who put a truck full of explosives underneath the WTC were tried and convicted in the U.S. The Millennium Bombers were tried and convicted in L.A. without undue security hassles. Security is a straw dog here.

The problem the right has with this, is that trials are public. Transcripts record every word spoken during the proceedings and both sides are entitled to present evidence which Bush can no longer force to be suppressed, which has been one of his big interests all along. I will be fascinated to see what comes out of this trial.

The way the prosecutions were divided was appropriate. The World Trade Center was in the U.S. and it was a civilian site. The bombers who are going to be tried by military courts attacked the Destroyer Cole, which was a military target as well as being outside of the U.S.

[Philosoraptor]

36. The 9-11 suspects are like any other criminals & should be treated as such

It's glaringly obvious why the GOP doesn't want to discuss it.

[Philosoraptor]

38. .........