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Try 9/11 Mastermind in Washington

Put Khalik Sheik Mohammed on trial in civil court in nation's capital

By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff

Posted Feb 26, 2010 2:16 PM CST

(Newser) – New York doesn’t want the trial of accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed to take place in lower Manhattan, so bring the proceedings to the nation’s capital, writes Thomas Penfield Jackson. After all, “KSM’s crimes were committed against the entire nation,” so a trial in Washington is only “fitting,” contends Jackson, a retired federal judge who presided in DC.

Jackson worries that New York’s demurral may result in an inappropriate military trial for KSM. “His crimes were civil,” he writes in the Washington Post. “His weapons were four stolen commercial aircraft,” and “he was not captured on a battlefield.” Terrorists should be convicted “as the common criminals they are. There is no more appropriate forum than the DC federal district court.”

A man identified by the site as Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, in detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
A man identified by the site as Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, in detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.   (AP Photo)
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A public trial in a civilian federal criminal court would demonstrate to the world ... that the United States, applying its well-respected standards for fairness, can convict terrorists as the common criminals they are. - Thomas Penfield Jackson

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 21 comments
Thinker
Feb 26, 2010 4:30 PM CST
Noooo! Not HERE. It will be the end of us forever!!!! After all, "Sheik Mohammed is a more brilliant, capable superhero than V in the fantasy movie, "V for Vendetta." Sheik Mohammed outwitted all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies along with those of all U.S. allies or puppets, including Israel's Mossad. No intelligence service on earth, or all of them combined, was a match for Sheik Mohammed. Sheik Mohammed outwitted the U.S. National Security Council, Dick Cheney, the Pentagon, the State Department, NORAD, the U.S. Air Force, and Air Traffic Control. He caused Airport Security to fail four times in one morning. He caused the state-of-the-art air defenses of the Pentagon to fail, allowing a hijacked airliner, which was off course all morning while the U.S. Air Force, for the first time in history, was unable to get aloft intercepter aircraft, to crash into the Pentagon." (ThomHartmann)
csmith1956
Feb 26, 2010 3:53 PM CST
The judge is wrong. All the world is the battlefield for a terrorist. They do not fight on a field of honor, therefore where ever they are found IS the battlefield. They should be tried by a military tribunal and afforded no appeals. They are not civilians by any sense of the word and therefore should not fall under federal authority. All they are doing is opening innocent people to more attacks to demoralize the civilians in our country.
alkaseltzersammich
Feb 26, 2010 2:32 PM CST
Try him in bumfuck, Texas, right in the middle of teaparty country. We'll treat him reeeaall good. Hehehe

 
military tribunal • New York City • Washington DC • September 11 • Khalid Sheikh Mohammed • civilian law • US District Court • terror trial • 9/11 attacks • Thomas Penfield Jackson

 
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