Lawyer: 9/11 Defendants Will Tell Jury 'Why They Did It'

Thanks, Barack Barry Soetoro Hussein Obama for providing a global stage for the Muslims responsible for the mass murders on 9/11. Here they go already, not even in the courtroom and they are crowing to the world that they will use the American justice system to justify their reasons for the mass murders on 9/11.  There can be no legal justification for bringing these mass murderers onto American soil as they were in the process of being tried before a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay.  That is, until you stopped the tribunals.

So Mr. President, your plan to provide a venue for the airing of the justification for Islamic mass murder of non-Muslims goes ahead faster than you had dared hope.  Your fellow travelers in Islam are already using the justice system to further the cause of Global Jihad.

FROM FOXNEWS.COM:

Lawyer: 9/11 Defendants Will Tell Jury 'Why They Did It'

NEW YORK  —  The five men facing trial in the Sept. 11 attacks will plead not guilty so that they can air their criticisms of U.S. foreign policy, the lawyer for one of the defendants said Sunday.

Scott Fenstermaker, the lawyer for accused terrorist Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, said the men would not deny their role in the 2001 attacks but "would explain what happened and why they did it."

The U.S. Justice Department announced earlier this month that Ali and four other men accused of murdering nearly 3,000 people in the nation's deadliest terrorist attack will face a civilian federal trial just blocks from the World Trade Center site.

Ali, also known as Ammar al-Baluchi, is a nephew of professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Mohammed, Ali and the others will explain "their assessment of American foreign policy," Fenstermaker said.
"Their assessment is negative," he said.

Fenstermaker met with Ali last week at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. He has not spoken with the others but said the men have discussed the trial among themselves.

Links
Pentagon Transcript of Confession (pdf)  

Fenstermaker was first quoted in The New York Times in Sunday's editions.
Critics of Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to try the men in a New York City civilian courthourse have warned that the trial would provide the defendants with a propaganda platform.

Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the Department of Justice, said Sunday that while the men may attempt to use the trial to express their views, "we have full confidence in the ability of the courts and in particular the federal judge who may preside over the trial to ensure that the proceeding is conducted appropriately and with minimal disrupton, as federal courts have done in the past."

Behind Missed Gitmo Deadline: Detainees Unwanted

Once again I will beat the drum to have all captured Muslim terrorists imprisoned on prison ships, in international waters.  This will require the simple adoption of the Geneva Conventions to cover the legal requirements of incarcerating them until the end of hostilities, without trial.  Frankly, as the Islamic Jihad will carry on for decades, many terrorist prisoners will die in  of old age before they could possibly be tried or released.  But that's war.  As with Japanese and Nazi leaders, they need not be tried until Islam stops it's attacks on Western civilization.  If at that time, those Muslim leaders who are incarcerated should be brought before MILITARY tribunals, not civilian courts.  The same holds true of lower level individuals who may be suspected to have committed war crimes and or crimes against humanity.  It was unimaginable during and immediately after WW II that high ranking Nazis and Japanese leaders would be tried in civilian courts for war crimes.

So we are now saddled with Barack Barry Soetoro Hussein Obama's political campaign promise to close Guantanamo Bay prison.  Because no other nation is stupid enough to take these worst of the worst Muslim terrorists, Obama has decided to proceed with civilian trials for the top five terrorists, but to hold Military tribunals for remaining prisoners. So he says.  But the plan for military tribunals is just a ploy.  If he can get away with the first five, the rest will surely follow into the civilian system.

And of course, what are his plans for all the Muslim terrorists that will be captured in the years to come?  He has already issued an executive order that they are to be "Mirandized" on the battlefield, so his plan must be to ship them directly to America.  I haven't seen anything that indicates just what is happening to those we capture now.  Are they being held incognito in US military prisons in the AfPak theater?  Are they being turned over the AfPak authorities?  If they are being turned over to the AfPak authorities, many of them will be turned free by sympathetic fellow Muslim jailers to resume their attacks.

There must be international consensus to hold captured Muslim terrorists, wherever they may be caught in the world, on prison ships for the duration of hostilities.  The Islamic Jihad recognizes no time limit, and so the West must not recognize any time limit on how long Muslim terrorists can be held.

Trials are for the victors to hold, and we are far from victory.


FROM NEWSMAX.COM:

Behind Missed Gitmo Deadline: Detainees Unwanted

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- President Barack Obama is now confirming what many have long suspected: He will miss his January deadline to close the Guantanamo prison -- partly because he cannot persuade other nations to take the detainees.
Prisoners like Walid Abu Hijazi. The 29-year-old is nearing his eighth year at Guantanamo even though the U.S. approved his release in February 2008. No one else has been willing to allow him, or dozens of others, into their territory.

This dilemma is one of the chief obstacles to closing the jail, according to lawyers and human rights groups who monitor U.S. detention policy. Most say Washington bears the main blame because it also refuses to accept prisoners on American soil.

"It's very difficult to persuade third countries to accept the political or security risks involved, especially when the United States has been unwilling to accept that risk itself," said Matthew Waxman, a professor at Columbia Law School.
U.S. officials decline to disclose the details of efforts to relocate Guantanamo prisoners, though in the past they acknowledged the difficulty in resettling ethnic Uighurs from China.

In Abu Hijazi's case, his Chicago-based lawyer, Matthew O'Hara, said he can only speculate that the problem with relocating his client is that the U.S. has no relations with Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, where Abu Hijazi is from.
No charges were ever filed against Abu Hijazi. O'Hara said his client told a military review panel he trained for two weeks at a militant camp in Afghanistan but never fired a weapon except in training and denied being part of the Taliban or al-Qaida.
"He's hanging in there," the lawyer said. "The men there generally have learned not to get their hopes up."

O'Hara doesn't see a possibility of his client being accepted elsewhere.
"Our friends and allies around the world say, 'If you don't want them, why should we take them?' That, I think, is the key obstacle," he said.
The administration says about 90 of the 215 men now held at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay on Cuba can be released or repatriated, but it has made little progress since Obama announced shortly after his inauguration that he would close the widely criticized prison.
READ IT ALL:

Obama suggests 911 suspect will get death penalty

Mr. Dithers continues to twiddle his thumbs and look to his teleprompters for a solution as what to do about Muslim terrorism.  Actually, he must first publicly acknowledge that there is such a thing as Muslim terrorism.  But that would require him to turn on his fellow Muslims.

FROM REUTERS.COM:

Obama suggests 911 suspect will get death penalty
Wed Nov 18, 2009 5:16pm EST 

By Jeremy Pelofsky and James Vicini 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama suggested on Wednesday the self-professed mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks would be convicted and put to death, but later said he was not trying to prejudge the trial.

Speaking in television interviews while traveling in Asia, Obama acknowledged he would miss his January 22 deadline to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is now held, but said he believed it would be shut next year.

Separately, Attorney General Eric Holder told lawmakers Mohammed and his accused four co-conspirators could be safely tried in New York despite Republican security concerns.
In testimony before Congress, Holder also said the federal government was open to paying for some of the added security costs, which a New York senator said could be upwards of $75 million a year.

Obama defended Holder's decision on Friday to move the five men from the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for a trial in a U.S. federal court in New York.
"(What) I think we have to break is this fearful notion that somehow our justice system can't handle these guys," Obama said in an interview with NBC News.
Asked if he understood why some people were offended by trying the men in U.S. courts, he replied: "I don't think it will be offensive at all when he's convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him."

He then backtracked, saying, "What I said was people will not be offended if that's outcome. I'm not prejudging" them.
READ IT ALL:

Bringing al Qaeda to New York

Again I say, prison ships, military tribunals and incarceration until the cessation of hostilities, as mandated by the Geneva Conventions, are the only viable long term solution to dealing with captured terrorists.

FROM NATIONALREVIEW.COM:

Bringing al Qaeda to New York
By the Editors

Candidate Barack Obama urged a return to pre-9/11 counterterrorism-by-courts. President Obama’s Justice Department overflows with lawyers who spent the last eight years representing America’s enemies. Thus, Friday’s announcement that top al-Qaeda terrorists will be brought to New York City for a civilian trial is no surprise. That doesn’t make it any less inexcusable.

The treatment of jihadist terror as a mere law-enforcement issue, fit for civilian courts, was among the worst of the national-security derelictions of the Nineties. While the champions of this approach stress that prosecutors scored a 100 percent conviction rate, they conveniently omit mention of the paltry number of cases (less than three dozen, mostly against low-level terrorists, over an eight-year period, despite numerous attacks), as well as the rigorous due-process burdens that made prosecution of many terrorists impossible, the daunting disclosure and witness-confrontation rules that required government to disclose mountains of intelligence, the gargantuan expense of “hardening” courthouses and prisons to protect juries and judges, and the terrorists’ exploitation of legal privileges to plot additional attacks and escape attempts.

In placing the nation on a war footing after the September 11 attacks, the Bush administration invoked the laws of war to detain terrorists as enemy combatants and to try those who had committed provable war crimes by military commission — measures that were endorsed by Congress despite being challenged in the courts by some of the lawyers now working in Obama’s Justice Department. This military-commission system provided due-process protections that were unprecedented for wartime enemies, including the right to appellate review in the civilian courts. But they protected national-defense information from disclosure

This commission system is tailor-made for the 9/11 plotters, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suicide-hijacking mastermind who is brazen in taking credit for that and numerous other attacks against the United States. In fact, last December, KSM and his four co-defendants indicated to the military judge that they wanted to plead guilty and move on to execution. But then the Obama administration swept into power and undertook to repudiate many of Bush’s counterterrorism practices, declaring its intention to close Gitmo within a year and forcing a moratorium on military commissions so the process could be “studied.” Friday’s announcement that KSM and the other 9/11 plotters will be sent to federal court in New York for a civilian trial is the most significant step to date in Obama’s determination to turn back the clock to the time when government believed subpoenas rather than Marines were the answer to jihadist murder and mayhem.

It is difficult to quantify how dangerously foolish this course is. As they demonstrated in offering to plead guilty while bragging about their atrocities, KSM and his cohorts don’t want a trial so much as they want a soapbox to press their grievances against the United States and the West. With no real defense to the charges, they will endeavor to put America on trial, pressing the court for expansive discovery of government intelligence files. Having gratuitously exposed classified information on interrogation tactics and other sensitive matters in order to pander to Obama’s base, the Justice Department will be in a poor position to argue against broad disclosure, even if it were so inclined. As the court orders more and more revelations, potential intelligence sources and foreign spy services will develop even graver doubts about our capacity to keep secrets. They will reduce their intelligence cooperation accordingly, and the nation will be dramatically more vulnerable.

Moreover, the transfer of the worst al-Qaeda prisoners into the U.S. will grease the skids for many, if not most, of the remaining 200-plus Gitmo terrorists to be moved here. This will be the worst of all possible outcomes. These are trained terrorists who have been detained under the laws of war, but most of whom cannot be tried because the intelligence on them cannot be used in court. We are still holding them because they are deadly dangerous and because no other country is willing to take them off our hands. Once inside the United States, they will indisputably be within the jurisdiction of the federal courts — which are staffed by judges predisposed against wartime detention without trial. As long as the terrorists were at Gitmo, those judges were reluctant to order them released into the U.S. — a transfer that would violate federal law. If the terrorists are already here, though, judges will not be as gun-shy. Inevitably, some will be freed to live and plot among us.

The Obama Left delusionally argues that running these risks will make us safer. The international community will see how enlightened we are, the fable goes. The hostility of America’s enemies will melt away. They’ll lay down their bombs and stop attacking us. As observed by former attorney general Michael Mukasey — who presided over terrorism cases as a federal judge — “We did just that after the first World Trade Center bombing, after the plot to blow up airliners over the Pacific, and after the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. In return, we got the 9/11 attacks and the murder of nearly 3,000 innocents.”

MObama Urges Congress Not to Probe Fort Hood

ANOTHER obstacle by Barack Barry Soetoro Hussein Obama Jr. to the resolution of the mass murder at Ft. Hood Texas by a Muslim.  Now he "urges" Congress delay any investigation into the murders until the Army and FBI complete their investigation.  Hopefully the Congress will tell him to take a hike and stay out of their business.  After all, we have a three branch system of government for good reason: to keep a President from assuming despotic powers.

Ah yes, delay, obscure, and ultimately deny any meaningful answers to the whys and who's of this Muslim Jihadist attack on American servicemen and America.


FROM ATLASSHRUGS:

MObama Urges Congress Not to Probe Fort Hood, Warns Against Turning Tragedy Into "Political Theater", Obama is aiding and abeting jihad against US

The latest incomprehensible outrage from the muhammedan president. Whose side is he on? It sure ain't America's.

The President is attempting to halt an investigation into the largest attack on a military base in US history? The first since 911, on Hussein's watch? Is that not treason? Aiding and abetting the enemy. He warns of "political theater"? Uncovering the facts behind an Islamic attack on our soil is "political theater". He is political theater. He is the Lawrence Olivier of political theater.

The Democrats have subjugated themselves to Islam and assumed the role of de facto political party of Islam. Every day multiple gut wrenches in post America. The most devastating angle in all this is how even senior Democratic Members of Congress submit to the Muhammadan president. Islam is a political party and we know now they are the Democrats. Khalid Sheik Mohammad, now this.

Could you imagine such a request from Bush after 911? Imagine if Bush halted the 911 commission hearings. Though the real failures of the Clinton presidency were never fully revealed at those hearings (the Dems stood in the way of truth, again).

Our Congress is compromised, infiltrated by the enemy. We need a special commission of citizen experts to investigate Fort Hood. Why is Obama requesting all the evidence?

To shred it with Hasan's giant shredder? 

Had those two police officers not taken out Major Muslim, there would have been hundreds.... more dead.
And the Congress will stop this probe, at his urging, they are in Total Violation of their Oath(s) of Office and CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY. (hat tip Choi)

Over at the Obama media, the Puff Ho:
Obama Urges Congress To Put Off Fort Hood Probe, Warns Against Turning Tragedy Into "Political Theater" (VIDEO) 

AP) WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Saturday urged Congress to hold off on any investigation of the Fort Hood rampage until federal law enforcement and military authorities have completed their probes into the shootings at the Texas Army post, which left 13 people dead.

On an eight-day Asia trip, Obama turned his attention home and pleaded for lawmakers to "resist the temptation to turn this tragic event into the political theater." He said those who died on the nation's largest Army post deserve justice, not political stagecraft.

WATCH:

"The stakes are far too high," Obama said in a video and Internet address released by the White House while the president he was flying from Tokyo to Singapore, where Pacific Rim countries were meeting.

Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, was charged on Thursday with the shooting spree at Fort Hood last week. Army investigators have said Hasan is the only suspect and could face additional charges.

Obama already had ordered a review of all intelligence related to Hasan and whether the information was properly shared and acted upon within government agencies. Several members of Congress, particularly Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, have also called for a full examination of what agencies knew about Hasan's contacts with a radical Muslim cleric in Yemen and others of concern to the U.S.

Hoekstra confirmed this week that government officials knew of about 10 to 20 e-mails between Hasan and the radical imam, beginning in December 2008.
A joint terrorism task force overseen by the FBI learned late last year of Hasan's repeated contact with the cleric, who encouraged Muslims to kill U.S. troops in Iraq. The FBI said the task force did not refer early information about Hasan to superiors because it concluded he wasn't linked to terrorism.

Lawmakers, however, already have announced they want their own investigations and were frustrated with what they view as a less-than-forthcoming administration.

Rep. Howard McKeon, R-Calif., said he wanted to go ahead with an investigation from the House Armed Services Committee, where he is the top Republican. He said he wanted an investigation that wouldn't compromise law enforcement or military investigations that were continuing on separate tracks.
In the Senate, Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, said his Homeland Security Committee was opening an investigation.

Obama said he was not opposed to hearings – eventually. But he strongly pressed lawmakers to hold off until the probes now under way are completed.
"There is an ongoing investigation into this terrible tragedy," Obama said. "That investigation will look at the motives of the alleged gunman, including his views and contacts."

"We must compile every piece of information that was known about the gunman, and we must learn what was done with that information. Once we have those facts, we must act upon them."
- PHILIP ELLIOTT

Senate OKs Transfer of Gitmo Prisoners to U.S.

Obama, the Muslim's man in the White House has just handed the Islamic jihad a major victory by tacking his desire to bring Muslim terrorists from Gitmo onto American soil onto the national defense bill. 

Our gutless, self-serving Senate passed this abomination of a bill 79-19.  The repercussions of bringing Islamic terrorists onto American soil will cripple us for decades to come.

FROM NEWSMAX.COM:

Senate OKs Transfer of Gitmo Prisoners to U.S.

President Barack Obama won a modest victory Tuesday in his continuing effort to close the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, allowing the government to continue to transfer detainees at the facility to the U.S. to be prosecuted.
The plan to permit terrorist suspects held at the facility to be shipped to U.S. soil to face trial passed the Senate by a 79-19 vote as part of a larger $44.1 billion budget bill for the Homeland Security Department.
The measure already passed by the House now goes to Obama for his signature. The Guantanamo provision generally tracks restrictions already in place that block release of detainees in the U.S., but permits them to be tried here.

Obama in January ordered the facility closed within a year, but the administration has yet to deliver a plan and the effort has hit several roadblocks. Among the problems is unease among Obama's Democratic allies on Capitol Hill, who have refused to fund the effort.
The plan adopted Tuesday requires the administration to develop a plan before any further transfers. It also requires 15 days' notice before a transfer can occur and a certification that the prisoner does not represent a security risk.

The Senate debate over Guantanamo prisoners was relatively sedate. Last week, House Democratic leaders had to press to defeat a GOP effort to block transfer of any of the Guantanamo Bay detainees to the U.S., even to face trial.
"Prosecuting these individuals in our U.S. courts simply will not work and there is too much at stake to grant the unprecedented benefit of our legal system's complex procedural safeguards to foreign nationals who were captured outside the United States during a time of war," said Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.
READ IT ALL:

Obama’s Deal Moving Gitmo Terrorists to U.S. Passes House Vote

This was to be expected, seeing as how Obama wants to move the Muslim terrorists from Gitmo to American soil so that his fellow travelers can then petition for civil trials in the American court system. 

The best solution, IMHO, is to confine Muslim terrorists on prison ships, far at sea in international waters.  After all, they are self made stateless terrorists without uniforms or national allegiance so why should they be granted legal protections available to normal citizens of established countries? 

Prison ships would avoid the ugly prospect of murderous, fanatical Muslims ever fouling American soil or court systems.  As our defensive war against Islam continues, and it will go on for decades, prison ships will provide a safe repository for the large number of captured terrorists that will accumulate. 

The US has many Navy ships in mothballs which could be utilized for prisons possibly at less cost than land based prisons.  They are already all steel, and a prison break would lead nowhere except the deep six.  The safety of the American people must be the first priority of government.

FROM CANADAFREEPRESS.COM:

Obama’s Deal Moving Gitmo Terrorists to U.S. Passes House Vote
By Online  Friday, October 16, 2009

Sacramento , CA – The nation’s largest grassroots, pro-troop organization condemned the action by the House of Representatives voting to clear the way for President Barack Obama’s plan to transfer prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to the United States.

“We will not stand by as the Congress and President Obama weaken our defenses against our radical Islamic enemies.  Bringing these terrorists to the United States will only enable them to bring more mischief to our shores,” said Shawn Callahan, Executive Director of Move America Forward.

Move America Forward, which visited Guantanamo Bay last December, has been outspoken and fervent to keep Gitmo open and the terrorists off of U.S. soil.  Despite Americans overwhelming opposition to the closure of Gitmo and the transfer of terrorists to America, the House of Representatives voted to remove a legal impediment to bringing the terrorists to the U.S.
“The worst thing,” Callahan said, “was the complete arrogance of members of Congress in flaunting the will of the people.  It is no wonder the public has such a low opinion of Congress.” 
Callahan cited examples of Members of Congress who voted to make it easier for terrorist transfers to United States prisons:

“I haven’t had one person ask me about Guantanamo,” said Rep. Baron Hill, D-Ind. He added that he does “not in the least” fear it as an issue in next year’s elections.
“It’s a nonissue. Inside the (Washington) Beltway stuff,” said first-term Rep. Dan Maffei, D-N.Y.

“Our military heroes gave their lives to keep the terrorists from coming to America,” Callahan said. “Now the U.S. Congress votes to bring terrorists here? This is scandalous.”

The Democrats attached the prisoner transfer to a $42.8 billion homeland security appropriations bill. The vote on Thursday was 224-193. President Obama made a campaign promise to close Gitmo as a way to appease his European and Muslim allies. He has found that closing Gitmo is much more difficult than simply making a promise because the terrorists held at the prison are hardcore Jihadists determined to kill Americans.
MAF representatives who visited Guantanamo Bayin 2008 are also available for interviews.

The Gitmo 5's burn notice

Here's another look at the fanatical dedication of Islamists in their quest to impose Sharia law on all of mankind and the government's failure to recognize the scope of the threat. When will our government take these terrorists at their word that it is their mission in life to destroy the West?

FROM JEWISHWORLDREVIEW.COM:

The Gitmo 5's burn notice
By Jonah Goldberg

"Some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn."

That's a line from the movie "The Dark Knight." Maybe it's because I'm just a comic-book-loving fool, but that's the first thing that popped into my mind when I read the Gitmo Five's statement.

"We are terrorists to the bone," the Guantanamo detainees proclaimed. Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, and his four comrades consider the charges that they slaughtered nearly 3,000 Americans to be "badges of honor, which we carry with pride."

In a six-page document released by a military judge, the men swear that America will fall like "the towers on the blessed 9/11 day."
READ IT ALL:

Guantanamo Detainees Say They Planned 9-11 Attacks

I'm not sure what to make of this, but strongly suspect an attempt to manipulate the media and judicial system. It's just a bit fishy that this should come out of nowhere, after all the years of interrogations and intelligence effort put into understanding just who these people are. Dissimenating false information and outrageous claims as a prisoner is part of al Qaeda training.

The MSM and UN response should be interesting.

FROM FOXNEWS.COM:

Guantanamo Detainees Say They Planned 9-11 Attacks
Tuesday, March 10, 2009

The five detainees at Guantanamo Bay charged with plotting the September 11, 2001 attacks have filed a document accepting responsibility for the deaths of nearly 3,000 people and expressing pride at their accomplishment, The New York Times reported late Monday.

The document, which the newspaper said may be released publicly on Tuesday, describes the five men as the "9/11 Shura Council," and says their actions were an offering to God, according to excerpts of the document read to a reporter by a government official, the report said.

"'To us,' the official read, 'they are not accusations. To us they are a badge of honor, which we carry with honor,'" the paper said.

The document is titled "The Islamic Response to the Government's Nine Accusations," the military judge at the U.S. Naval base said in a separate filing, obtained by the Times, that described the detainees' document.
The document was filed on behalf of the five men, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who has called himself the mastermind of the attacks.

Some of the men had said earlier that they planned the 2001 attacks and that they wanted to be martyrs. The reason for the new filing, which the report said reached the military court on March 5, was not clear. The brief court order describing the filing said the men sought no legal action.

Shutting Down Guantanamo Makes No Common Sense

Heather Robinson makes a clear argument for not closing Guantanamo and points out the many major problems which will arise with the closing.

FROM JEWISHWORLDREVIEW.COM:

Shutting Down Guantanamo Makes No Common Sense
By Heather Robinson

Last week former Vice President Dick Cheney defended the Bush administration's national security policies, including holding "hard core" terror suspects at the detention facility at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Cheney's warning that granting rights to, and possibly releasing, hard-core terror suspects would be a mistake comes on the heels of President Obama's announcement that he plans to shut down Gitmo-a decision a majority of Americans disagree with, for good reason.

Americans are a people of common sense. And shutting down Gitmo doesn't seem to make very much.

Although the President has already made the decision, it remains to be seen what its ramifications will be.
READ IT ALL:

Military judge to Obama No, I will not suspend hearings on USS Cole attacker

This is a small glimmer of light in the looming darkness of the Obama roll-over to Islam. At least one military judge has the nads to fulfill his oath to be impartial and not allow undue influence. It's not surprising though that the Obama regime thought they could just demand that the law be put aside because it is inconvient for them.

FROM JIHADWATCH.ORG:

Military judge to Obama No, I will not suspend hearings on USS Cole attacker

A citizen obeys the laws as they are currently formulated: an act of defiance.

"Military Judge Denies Obama Request to Suspend Hearings at Guantanamo," by Peter Finn for the Washington Post,
January 29 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A military judge in Guantanamo Bay has denied the Obama administration's request to delay proceedings for 120 days in the case of a detainee accused of planning the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole warship, an al-Qaeda strike that killed 17 service members and injured 50 others.
The decision throws into some disarray the administration's plan to buy time as it reviews individual detainee cases as part of its plan to close the U.S. military prison at the Guantanamo naval base in Cuba. The Pentagon may now be forced to withdraw the charges against Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi citizen of Yemeni descent.

In one of its first actions, the Obama administration instructed military prosecutors to seek 120-day suspensions of legal proceedings in the cases of 21 detainees who have been charged. There are approximately 245 prisoners held at Guantanamo.

The request was quickly granted in other cases when prosecutors told military judges that a suspension was in the "interests of justice" so that the "president and his administration [can] review the military commissions process, generally, and the cases currently pending before military commissions, specifically."
But Judge James Pohl, an Army colonel, said he found the government's reasoning "unpersuasive."

"The Commission is unaware of how conducting an arraignment would preclude any option by the administration," said Pohl in a written opinion, portions of which were read to The Post. "Congress passed the military commissions act, which remains in effect. The Commission is bound by the law as it currently exists, not as it may change in the future."
Nashiri is facing arraignment on Feb. 9, and Pohl said the proceedings would go ahead....
Bravo, Pohl.

9/11 co-defendant: 'We did what we did'

This is just a small taste of the legal boondoggle that will disrupt the American judicial system, make a laughingstock of the US and provide the worst terrorists in the world to a political soapbox in the courtroom. Once again, Muslim terrorists justify their terrorism as a religious requirement.

FROM MSNBC.MSM.COM:

9/11 co-defendant: 'We did what we did'
At possibly last war crimes hearing at Guantanamo, two acknowledge guilt

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - Two of the five men accused of orchestrating the Sept. 11 attacks offered unapologetic admissions of guilt Monday in a sometimes chaotic — and possibly final — session of the Guantanamo war crimes court.

The hearings, scheduled over several days, could be the last at Guantanamo, since President-elect Barack Obama has said he would close the offshore prison at the U.S. base in Cuba and many expect him to suspend the military tribunals and order new trials in the U.S.

Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed architect of the terrorist attacks, casually admitted guilt during a series of outbursts as the translators struggled to keep up and the judge repeatedly sought to regain control.

"We did what we did; we're proud of Sept. 11," Binalshibh announced at one point in proceedings that dealt with a number of legal issues, including whether he is mentally competent to stand trial on charges that carry a potential death sentence.
Mohammed, who is representing himself, switched back and forth between Arabic and English, insisting at one point that a uniformed military lawyer assigned to assist him be removed from his defense table. The man, he said, represents the "people who tortured me," he said.
Mohammed shrugged off the potential death sentence he faces for charges that include the murder of nearly 3,000 people in the Sept. 11 attacks.
"We don't care about capital punishment," he said. "We are doing jihad for the cause of God."
Told by the judge to limit his remarks to the subject at hand, Mohammed bristled: "This is terrorism, not court. You don't give me the opportunity to talk."
READ IT ALL:

A short argument in favor of using the Geneva Conventions for captured terrorists

From the Geneva Conventions:

SECTION II
RELEASE AND REPATRIATION OF PRISONERS OF WAR AT THE CLOSE OF HOSTILITIES
Article 118
Prisoners of war shall be released and repatriated without delay after the cessation of active hostilities.
(LINK)

The latest Islamic Jihad will be going on for decades, if not for generations. Therefore we are going to need long term solutions to incarcerate captured terrorists.

I would argue that we must treat captured terrorists as prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions rather than the half-assed legal mish-mash we now have. We must do this for one reason and one reason only; under Geneva, enemy combatants may be held FOR THE DURATION OF HOSTILITIES. As it stands now, we already extend all the conditions of the Convention to the Guantanamo terrorists EXCEPT the ability to hold them indefinitely. By not wanting to call captured terrorists POWs, the administration has created a legal monster that can no longer be controlled.

As we now see, what to do with Islamic terrorists captured in future engagements is a major problem if we are expected to give them civil trials and or release them before hostilities are concluded.

Under Obama, it won't be long before the Gitmo prisoners will be turning our judicial system into an even larger political grandstand while being aided and abetted by the ACLU et al. The looming legal circus undermines our credibility and muddies our ability to effectively deal with captured terrorists now, and in the future.

To those who say we will miss crucial intelligence, I say most good intelligence is obtained through kid glove handling and questioning. For those rare cases of imminent national threat, the president should retain the authority to utilize special interrogation for critical prisoners.

Pentagon: 61 ex-Guantanamo inmates return to terrorism

This is to be expected. No one but a self-deluded idiot could believe that releasing Guantanamo inmates would not see many of them return to terrorism. The official estimate is about 11 percent recidivism, but that seems low for a bunch of fanatical Muslims.

It was a huge mistake for the Bush administration to try to classify the terrorists captured while waging Jihad as "enemy combatants" rather than Prisoners of War under the Geneva Convention. While the GC prohibits some of the interrogation methods that were successfully employed, it does allow for the holding of captured combatants for the duration of the war. Considering that the Islamic Jihad against the Western world will go on for decades, being able to hold captured enemy indefinitely has a great value. That way there could be no calls for terrorist being given legal rights granted to law abiding citizens.

As it stands now, the ACLU and every Jihadi loving leftie have maneuvered the government into an impossible situation. There must be a long term (decades long) means to hold terrorists to keep them from making a mockery of Western laws and then going back to killing non-Muslims.

FROM YAHOO.COM:

Pentagon: 61 ex-Guantanamo inmates return to terrorism

By David Morgan David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon said on Tuesday that 61 former detainees from its military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, appear to have returned to terrorism since their release from custody.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said 18 former detainees are confirmed as "returning to the fight" and 43 are suspected of having done in a report issued late in December by the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Morrell declined to provide details such as the identity of the former detainees, why and where they were released or what actions they have taken since leaving U.S. custody.

"This is acts of terrorism. It could be Iraq, Afghanistan, it could be acts of terrorism around the world," he told reporters.
Morrell said the latest figures, current through December 24, showed an 11 percent recidivism rate, up from 7 percent in a March 2008 report that counted 37 former detainees as suspected or confirmed active militants.
READ IT ALL:

FOREIGN terror suspects from Guantanamo Bay could be released into Britain next month.

Well, with Obama ready to shut down Guantanamo and the Eurowenie dhimmis aiding and abetting the shutdown, the islamists have scored a major strategic victory.

It will be interesting, in a macabre way, to watch the Guantanamo inmates make a mockery of the American judicial system by turning the courtroom into a soap box for their propaganda. The pity of it is that the accepting these terrorists governments will be saddled with providing unlimited benefits while they plot their next attack against the West.

Insanity.

So far there is about a 60% recidivism rate for "resettled" ex-Guantanamo inmates turning up back in combat against the West or assuming leadership roles in terrorists groups. Which means of course, many more Westerners and Muslims needlessly killed by islamic terrorists. Once released these terrorists will be welcomed back into their muslim communities as heros and roll models.

FROM THESUN.CO.UK:

FOREIGN terror suspects from Guantanamo Bay could be released into Britain next month.

As part of new President Barack Obama’s plan to close the detention base in Cuba, America wants help to “resettle” 60 prisoners.
Some are expected to apply for asylum in the UK and could be eligible for homes, £41 a week in benefits and free NHS services — at taxpayers’ expense.
The idea that even potential al-Qaeda sympathisers could enter Britain at a time when our troops are risking their lives fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan is likely to cause outrage.

Last night the Tories demanded assurances that the safety of the British public would come first.

Torture
Mr Obama has promised to close Guantanamo as one of his first acts in office.
Whitehall sources said there was a “strong expectation” he will ask the UK to take detainees who have been cleared for release.
Some may claim they face persecution or torture if sent back to their own countries.

The Home Office would consider such applications on a case-by-case basis. But without firm evidence against them, suspects are likely to be allowed in.
The issue is a political hot potato with negotiations ongoing across Whitehall.
Once here, freed detainees could not be held without charge — and they cannot be charged as almost all the evidence against them is circumstantial or obtained “under duress”.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is likely to try to get courts to slap control orders such as curfews, house arrest and phone restrictions on them. But judges may refuse to grant any.

An insider said: “There will be questions about how and where the evidence was obtained and how reliable it was.”
No10 officials said it was premature to speculate on the issue but conceded it was something that “will have to be dealt with”.
The Government accepts Guantanamo should be shut and that the US needs help from its allies to do so.

The EU is divided on the issue with Holland ruling out taking inmates, Portugal and Germany signalling they might and France calling for a common European stance.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We have made it clear we think Guantanamo Bay should be closed and recognise the difficulties.”
Four UK nationals and four ex-residents have already been freed while two others, Binyam Mohamed and Shaker Aamer, are still in custody.
Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve and Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague both said the Government had to give “clear reassurances” that freed detainees would not be a terror threat to the British people.

It is thought those inmates of Guantanamo considered the most dangerous, including the self-confessed mastermind of 9/11, Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, will be taken to the US for trial.

Guantanamo’s Jihad: The Show Begins …

Waled Phares warns of the three ring circus that will ensue if the Guantanamo prisoners are grated access to the American court system. The show has already begun with the dramatic declaration by several prisoners that they want to plead guilty and become martyrs. This is plainly a grand stand effort to garner attention and become examples for other muslims to follow. I'm sure they also expect the anti-American "useful dhimmis" to demonstrate and use the prisoners for anti war propaganda.

FROM POLITICALMAVINS.COM:

Guantanamo’s Jihad: The Show Begins …

By Walid Phares (bio)

Al Qaeda’s great moment for propaganda has arrived, just as I predicted it would when I wrote about this in June. The Guantanamo trials will provide leading figures in the 9/11 massacre their “moment” to deliver a blow to America’s psyche, image and legal system.

As predicted, almost to the letter in my analysis in June,the men charged with plotting the September 11 attacks have declared their readiness to make confessions. According to FOX News and the Associated Press the military judge assigned to their war crimes trial at Guantanamo Bay read aloud a letter in which the five co-defendants said they request an immediate hearing session “to announce our confessions.” The AP report added that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (aka KSM) has already told interrogators he was the mastermind of the attacks. “Now he’s telling the judge that he and the others want to make confessions at the trial.” The judge at the pre-trial hearing, Army Col. Stephen Henley, is asking each defendant if they are prepared to enter a plea. Three have agreed to do so.

So, is there an Al Qaeda plan being put into motion on the inside? Most likely there is as our knowledge of Al Qaeda training instructions has shown. –Both the government and media of the United States are ill-prepared for this type of jihadi propaganda warfare. Seven years after the beginning of the so-called “War on Terror,” the enemy’s ideology, strategies and methods still haven’t been officially identified. It is like using a Word War I mind set to fight World War II terror strategies.

The “confessions” turned declaration of victory will be picked up by Al Qaeda and other jihadi groups and transformed into vital material for propaganda: videos, audio and texts.

Here is what the jihadists, both on the inside and the outside of the Guantanamo detention center are planning for:
First, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his comrades will use the so-called confessions deal to build a psychological environment for a martyrdom case: “istishaad.” They aren’t interested in saving their lives (at first, although they think they could) but in providing a maximum damage to their enemy through the tribunal proceedings. They will claim the court is not legitimate, the entire Guantanamo process as illegal and that they are ready to die as Jihadis in the path to Allah. Their first target is to grant themselves, in the eyes of millions of militants around the world the status of “Shuhada,” martyrs, even though they could survive it.

The “confessions” turned declaration of victory will be picked up by Al Qaeda and other jihadi groups and transformed into vital material for propaganda: videos, audio and texts. The “show” inside court will be used for indoctrination purpose around the world. A myth will be set in motion and emotional reactions to the “story” will be mutated into future revenge operations.
From there on, leave it to the architects of jihadi propaganda: statements made by the defendants will be used by operatives online, in the chat rooms but also on Al Jazeera (by callers and guests), and in other medium to widen the radicalization of youth in the Arab and Muslim world and within the West as well. An Al Qaeda “control room” will use the feed from the Guantanamo trials to produce a victory in their war of ideas against democracies. The fate of the 9/11 detainees isn’t the issue to Al Qaeda. By pledging loyalty to the “mission” through the so-called “confessions” or statements they have already sacrificed themselves ideologically. What KSM and his comrades are offering to their “brothers” around the world is an unbeatable series of images, footage and audio — pure gold for Al Qaeda propagandists and ideologues.

Ironically, during this time of transition between the two administrations in both the Bush and Obama teams may find they overlook the direct goals of Al Qaeda’s plan. As national security teams meet and wrestle over future options in the War on Terror (will some possibly end up just calling it a “war”?) the other side is waging its own war methodically, relentlessly and unstoppably. Every inch of room to maneuver is used to the maximum to weaken the enemy, even from within the walls of the detention centers. And that is only at Guantanamo that the defendants are openly admitting their responsibilities in spreading terror. Wait until the processing of jihadists hits our U.S. courts here on the mainland. What we see now is just the beginning.

Dr. Walid Phares is Director of the Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies

9/11 Suspect Grills US Judge on Religion

This is exactly why international terrorists cannot be tried within traditional legal systems. Ordinary laws and courts are not equipped to handle fanatical islamic terrorists and their pack of turncoat leftist lawyers.

That Sheikh Mohammed would challenge the judge is to be expected, that's just another grandstanding tactic. What is unheard of is the judge allowing himself to be grilled. This judge better take control of this trial or it will be turned into a farce. This trial is extremely important as it will set precedent for all that follow.

Mohammed needs to be kept in a separate cell and participate in court via closed circuit TV to prevent him from disrupting the trial. His lawyers must not be allowed to stray from pertinent statements or to make propaganda speeches from the court.


FROM ISLAMONLINE.NET

9/11 Suspect Grills US Judge on Religion
CAIRO — In an usual Guantanamo military trial, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks has grilled a US military judge about views on religion and torture and whether he belonged to an extremist religious group, reported the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, September 24.
"The government considers all of us fanatical extremists," Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann.
"How can you, as an officer of the US Marine Corps, stand over me in judgment?"
Mohamed, a Pakistani national, asked the judge whether he belonged to an extremist religious group.
"We are well-known as extremists and fanatics, and there are also Christians and Jews that are very extremist.
"If you, for example, were part of Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson's groups, then you would not at all be impartial towards us," he said, referring to US evangelical Christian leaders who have denounced Islam as violent.
The judge replied that though he attended some Lutheran and Episcopal services in the past, he is religious.
"When I have attended church, I was a member of various Lutheran churches and Episcopal churches, and I have not attended any of them for a long time because I have moved so often."
Mohammed and four other suspects are being tried over charges of conspiring to carry out the 9/11 attacks on the US.
They are among 15 "high-value" Al Qaeda prisoners previously held in CIA custody and later sent to Guantanamo, most of them in 2006.
The widely criticized Guantanamo Military Commissions are the first US war crimes tribunals since World War Two.
They were established to try non-US captives whom the Bush administration considers "enemy combatants" not entitled to the legal protections granted to US soldiers and civilians.

Complex
Mohammed also grilled the US judge about his views on torture and his knowledge of coercive interrogation tactics the CIA has admitted using on him.
Kohlmann replied the line between acceptable interrogation and torture is impossible to quantify without seeing the details.
He said he had given two articles to a high-school seminar in 2005, discussing the pros and cons of harsh interrogation techniques.
"I set out the scenarios ... to try to show it's a complex question," he said.
Mohammed is one of three Guantanamo suspects known to have been subjected to CIA waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning used in interrogation that human rights groups consider torture.
The judge was also asked about how he followed news coverage on the day of the 9/11 attacks and replied that his memory was imprecise.
He also said he had no opinion on the facts of the 9/11 attacks, which triggered US President George W. Bush's "war on terror."
Mohammed's questions to the judge carried political statements about US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, the prejudice of Christians and Jews against Islam, and even the writings of Richard Nixon.
Some comments prompted a government censor to cut off his microphone, citing national security concerns. The judge eventually lost patience.
"I will not allow you to act in a manner that is disrespectful to this court. . . . Do you understand me clearly?" Kohlmann said.

Disqualifying
The US judge has denied a request by the five defendants for a late start to accommodate the fasting schedule in the holy month of Ramadan.
He also brushed off a request to end the day early for the holy month.
Defense attorneys said they are considering whether to ask Kohlmann to disqualify himself based on his answers.
Lawyers have long complained of problems that make it impossible for their clients to get a fair trial.
They complain that the court translators are incompetent, as the defendants don't speak English, and that they can't talk to friends and family of the accused without prosecutors finding out about it.
"Today was more evidence of chaos," said Jackson, a lawyer for Mohammed's alleged moneyman, Mustafa Ahmed Hawsawi.
"It shows that despite hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, the system is not functioning."

Released Guantanamo detainee behind March suicide truck bombing at Combat Outpost Inman in Mosul

Abdullah Salih al Ajmi, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, was behind the attack on Combat Outpost Inman.

Here's another case of the left insisting on turning a rabid dog loose only to have it attack again. The latest SCOTUS decision to grant foreign combatants, captured on foreign soil is just the beginning of many more cases like this.

(edit) We must stop taking muslims into the military or any government position with access to classified data. We must also remove all those in such positions until they can be vetted for absolute loyalty to the U. S. But when Islam demands that there can be no loyalty for a muslim but to islam, no muslim can be trusted.

FROM LONGWAR JOURNAL.ORG:

Released Guantanamo detainee behind March suicide truck bombing at Combat Outpost Inman in Mosul
By Bill RoggioJune 26, 2008 1:59 AM
Video clip from Al Furqan's latest tape, "The Islamic State is Meant to Stay." The video shows the attack on Combat Outpost Inman and images from The Long War Journal of the aftermath of the attack.
Al Qaeda in Iraq, through its puppet organization the Islamic State of Iraq, released its latest propaganda video on June 23. The video contains a montage of attacks throughout Iraq, and features two Kuwaiti al Qaeda operatives who conducted strikes in Mosul. One of the operatives was released from the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Islamic State of Iraq used footage taken at Combat Outpost Inman by this reporter in Mosul in March of this year.
The 38-minute-long video, titled "The Islamic State is Meant to Stay," was produced by Al Furqan, al Qaeda's media arm in Iraq. Al Furqan has released few videos over the past six weeks said Nibras Kazimi, a Visiting Scholar at the Hudson Institute, at his website, Talisman Gate.

The video is the first official al Furqan release since May 30, according to ThreatsWatch.org's
Nick Grace, and the 24th video released in 2008. "By this time last year," he said, "they had produced exactly 90 videos. The rank and file on the Internet have even begun to question whether recent attack 'snuff' videos produced by this outfit are even new or just archival material to keep the appearance of fresh output. U.S. operations against their media cells inside Iraq late last year have had a profound impact."
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