Well, the first civilian trial of an Al Qaeda affiliate suspect in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Nairobi, Tanzania and Kenya is over. And out of 280 charges, Mr. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, 36, was found guilty of one. Conspiracy to destroy government property and buildings.
Outrageous, you say? Well, he's in for 20 years to life.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/nyregion/18ghailani.html
Now I know that emotions run high regarding all things related to Al Qaeda, but keep this in mind: This guy is going to do 20 YEARS before being considered for parole....how much you want to bet he's NOT going to get it?
A witness for the prosecution who says Ghailani received explosives and was more involved in the plot to attack the embassies was never heard by the jury because his testimomy was coerced (i.e., tortured), which is inadmissable in American court.
Now to prevent such things in the future...don't torture prisoners, and you have a better shot of faster trials with better sentencing because people wanted an execution sentence. So now the anti-Obama politicians and pundits are all screaming "Obama's civilian trials are a failure! He shames America's 9/11 victims, diminishes us in th eworld's eyes!"....which is interesesting being that the same detractors claimed that such trials could not happen on US soil due to the security risk. Welll, local residents and commuters were mostly unawares that such a trial was taking place in New York City!
So, we have a SAFE trial with a conviction....a hell of a lot more than Bush did for 8 years with all his Constitution/Bill of Rights bending actions. More to come, I'm sure.
It's utter lunacy.
Most of the big guys were never read their rights.
Most of them were questioned without an attorney present and under duress. Logically most of the evidence has to be thrown out.
You bring them to the states and you have to give them the same rights a citizen gets and the prosecution has little or no case? You're fucked.
None of them was captured in an occupied country so they didn't fall under Geneva Convention rules......but we're giving them a lawyer and rights they shouldn't have. They're supposed to spend their lives behind bars for the duration of the war...but since it's not a declared war the war never ends.
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