What most New Yorkers do not understand about the trial of Khalid Shiekh Mohammed and his cohorts is that, they are not being charged on ideological grounds. They are felons; they have committed serious crimes against the United States (with the Cole bombing that killed 17 servicemen and the atrocious 9/11 attacks in mind).
They are also "jihadists", meaning that they are soldiers of Allah (their god); and at least, their leader has admitted guilt by saying that he is the mastermind behind the attacks, in collusion with Usama Bin Laden; and therefore soldiers who are caught in the battlefield are not tried in a civil court. They must be tried according to military laws, which in some ways differ from civil laws, and the appropriate venue for them is a war or military tribunal.
Besides, the Department of Justice is purposely spreading the problem from Guantanamo Bay, where the atmosphere is suitable for a trial of the kind in question, because it is sparsely populated, to New York City, which has ten million people. Did anybody think about how the idea of bringing the trial to the city would impact their lives?
Of course, many criminal trials involving terrorists have taken place in New York City in the past; and at that time, there was no Guantanamo facility.
It happened to be the safest place to incarcerate terrorists, for the past eight years, and there was a tribunal setting ready and operational within that facility. So, why deliberately expand a situation that could be safely managed, and with less fear of any kind of incident happening, while the trials of those persons were going on?
The sub-headline on FOX News web site page, which reads, "Holder: Don't Fear 9/11 Trial", makes the whole thing derisive; and it shows how carelessly the decision has come about. It describes the five men as, " 'coward' Sept. 11 mastermind and 4 others"; and at the same time, "urging critics of the plan not to cower in the face of terrorists.".
Not to cower? As said before elsewhere in this blog, so many of such trials have happened in the city, like the trials of the culprits who perpetrated the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993. New Yorkers have never been afraid of anything. Period. They have the best police force in the country, prepared to handle any kind and all situations.
His critics, however, include the best minds in law enforcement in the U.S., such as his predecessor Michael Mukasey and former mayor Rudy Giuliani, and he, the attorney general, is still resisting, and insisting that his decision is a right one, while they are saying that New York City is not where the trial has to be held.
The plan, therefore, goes to show that the U.S now has an attorney general "who can't see the forest, but for the trees". In other words, if such law enforcement giants as Mukasey and Giuliani cannot be listened to, then it is not just New York City that must have serious concerns, but the whole nation.
It would be a good thing for him to overturn his decision, and to hold such trials in Guantanamo Bay, where some of the conspirators have been living for the past seven or eight years. That should be a good reason enough for them to be tried there.
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