By W.B. Dunne
It is with particular delight that the News Pauper announces that Eric Holder is my new favorite Attorney General ever
The announcement that the trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is to be held in New York City has led some on the right to say that the AG has granted citizenship to the terrorists. Bah actually, this is shaping up to be the route Obama will have to take in order to reverse the precedents set by the past eight years of Cheney-mentia.
I had not thought of it at first, but what a completely brilliant way to flip the flow on the criminal mismanagement that has occurred. By having this trial to begin with, the system has a chance to heal from its wounds, the press will have little else to focus on, and the facts of the case will certainly expose the treason of the architects of the policy. The right-wing noise machine is already wringing its hands at the terror of terrifying terrorists, in NYC, by having a fair and impartial trial in broad daylight. This is because it creates a scenario that if the criminals get off on any technicality, it will be that they did not receive the speedy trial they, and we, deserved.
A hearty, extra helping of reality to the Bush-wreckers of the Constitution.
I cannot wait to witness the contortions that will be going on if Fox News survives long enough to cover this entire affair. The mind staggers with the prospect of the whiners and cringers struggling to twist their phobias around the fact that there can be progress made without the surrendering of our basic rights and without denying those rights to those with whom we do not agree.
The right has been attempting to render a death of a thousand cuts to Obamas plans for the future of our republic. This trial will cleave the sane from the mad in one stroke. The execution of tyranny will be repeated every day that this trial is in session and makes the evening news. The excesses of the previous regime will be revealed in a way that will cleanse those of us that saw it as it all went down and convict the guilty enemies both foreign and domestic. I do not counsel magnanimity; we should shout out loud that the Constitution is much, much more than a “goddamned piece of paper,” as President Junior once called it.
If the News Pauper had spent his life in the service of the demons of greed and avarice that have ruled us for the last thirty years, the ones that dragged us further and further to the right in this country, I would seriously be considering the terms of my surrender right now. The right isnt smart enough for that, but theyll drum up the panic that they always do. They will shriek their faux patriotic bullshit with reality staring them in the face, and theyll lose everything.
Somewhere in Texas, a spoiled man-child cluelessly awaits his conveyance to The Hague for trial.
Contact the author at WBDunne@ltsaloon.org
2009 W.B. Dunne. All Rights Reserved.
Good stuff, WB, but I think the chances that the defendants will get off on a technicality are between nil and none. No doubt their attorneys will ask for a change of venue, and should get it, but where in the US could they possibly find an impartial jury — or judge, for that matter? Not that I have any sympathy for Mohammed and his boys but, as you say, we should have given them a speedy trial before the media onslaught convicted them in the public mind.
The next problem is that Khalid Mohammed wants to be a martyr and I think his execution might very well make him that in certain parts of the Muslim world. Hopefully his martyrdom will be mitigated by Obama’s popularity, reputation for decency, and the fact that he was tried in a mostly open court under American law. (Some parts of the trial dealing with classified info may be held in secret, according to news reports.)
I agree with your premise: this seems to be a very gradual ‘backdoor’ way of exposing BushCo’s flagrant violations of the Constitution and international law, and it is, indeed, why the righties are going mouth-foaming rabid at the prospect of some of their heroes ending up in the docket for war crimes, just like the Nazis at Nuremberg.
for someone without much of an eduction dunne, u put the eggheds to shame. im not a good writer, but u understand me i hope. u make points i have not red anywere else. i dont agree with all of it but u do make me think.