The other option is anarchy and violence. Even Machiavelli said that the “Prince should ‘appear’ to be just”, meaning thereby that he/she should have the trust of the people.

Brutal crimes have been committed down the centuries by different rulers. But the coming generations do remember how fairly the captured persons were treated. I know that things have become quite complex in the present times. However, we cannot forget that ‘eternal vigilance is the price of liberty’.

Once you allow the leaders/rulers/government to break the laws, their appetite grows and,finally, an ordinary citizen’s freedoms are taken away.

But if you, and others, think that the US administration is following the law then I stand corrected. But please also remember the ‘law is an ass’. There are also other considerations such as ethical and humane dimensions to life.

Try complete horsecrap. hehe

Who knows why this guy claims “credit” for everything. He could be taking the fall or padding his martyr credentials (he’ll be believed by many of his peers) or just be half crazy. His statements were illogical, confessing to all these things and then asking for mercy on behalf of many internees he says should be at Gitmo.

Here is the transcript (PDF, 26 pages):

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/transcript_ISN10024.pdf

I haven’t seen anything – I’ve been out and about all day.

I guess that, too. But I wasn’t commenting on KSM’s possible guilt, I was voicing my surprise that the transcript was offered to the public without a qualified statement like ‘investigations found that the testimony of the accused is affirned by other evidence and we believe his confession to be credible’.

If there has been such a statement and I missed it, pls provide a link, I’m interested.

Comments from another site’s commenters don’t prove or disprove anything. Have you read the transcript yet – yes or no?

“Should the accused (who happens to be an alleged enemy combatant) be tried according to the US laws? Do the international laws come into play? If they do why the tribunal is going ahead in total violation of the international laws?”

This has been gone over 1000 times. The tribunal that took place, that this transcript was a result of, as a direct result of US vs Hamdan, the SCOTUS decision and the subsequent law passed by Congress. International law, specifically the 3rdGC article 5, only says the following:

“Should any doubt arise as to whether persons, having committed a belligerent act and having fallen into the hands of the enemy, belong to any of the categories enumerated in Article 4, such persons shall enjoy the protection of the present Convention until such time as their status has been determined by a competent tribunal.”

Part II of chapter 3 of the 3rd GC goes into some detail about requirements for a criminal trial, but there is no additional requirements listed for tribunals, which are not trials. Just because you personally do not like the way the tribunal is conducted does not make it illegal under US or any other law.

“Has the US administration declared itself to be the policeman and the judge? Why even at this stage the world judicial bodies are not being associated in this so-called judicial process? Will this result in ripping apart the stage-managed show?”

Like I said above, this was not a trial, it was a combatant status tribunal. If he ever does make it to trial then he’ll have more rights, but the purpose of this tribunal is only to determine his combatant status under the GC. Even KSM admits this in the tribunal itself and argues that he’s a lawful combatant who was engaged in military action against his enemy, the United States. He views his acts as completely consistent with a lawful combatant under the GC which is why he admitted to them. He did not admit to these acts under torture – he’s using them as evidence to support his contention that he’s a lawful warrior fighting war against the US and Israel.

“These are the questions that are being asked world-wide and not just by me. And the absence of answers is seriously eroding US credibility all around.”

Yes, many people in the world, including people on this blog, don’t seem to understand that the tribunal is not a trial. It does not determine guilt or innocence for any crime – it solely determines the combatant status of a captured person as required by the GC and US law after the SCOTUS Hamdan case. I can’t help it if most of the world is willingly or unwilling ignorant on this point – certainly the media obfuscation does not help and neither does the often blind hatred of anything the Bush administration does.

If it were up to me I’d have done these tribunals long ago and I think the criticisms of Bush not doing them until now are completely valid. It was a clear violation of GC principles and the letter of the convention itself. But now we’re finally having these tribunals and people are still complaining that it’s not good enough. Do you seriously believe that a tribunal such as this should have all the trappings and benefits of the US Constitution and the US legal system? THAT would be unprecedented in history. Not even the TRIALS of Nazi war criminals had that standard and those were actual criminal trials. You can believe these tribunals are a “mockery of justice” all you want, but there is no requirement, either in US law or international law that requires the US to do more than it is doing. It’s currently meeting the required legal standard.

Gray,

Did you read the transcript? Only unclassified information was released and this represented the unclassified portion of the tribunal. There was another, I’m sure, that presented classified information. He was captured with a computer that contained detailed information on a variety of these attacks – information that could only have come from an insider. He claims in the tribunal that the computer belonged to another man he was captured with and he argues that some of the stuff found on the computer is on thousands of computers – like pictures of Atta. But his name was on the computer and directly links him to several attacks. So it was determined long ago that he was not “boasting.”

Some samples:
It’s interesting how America have swiftly and unwittingly shifted the blame for 9/11 away from the ever elusive Osama bin Laden and onto a new figure of evil, one which they can thankfully claim to have ‘brought to justice’.

Now with the al-Qaeda and the Ba’ath Party taken care of, what next for Bush’s raging war on terror? I dread to imagine.

Iwan Evans, Cardiff, U.K.
———

While we all want to believe this, there’s no way to. With torture now legal in the US, and the Bush Administration crumbling, there’s no way of telling Mohammed was tortured to the point of this confession to build government support on terrorist and Iraqi issues.

Marcus, Durham, NC
———

As most of the world believes that Sheikh Mohammed was the mastermind of the horrors of 9/11, it is indeed a tragedy that the credibity of Sheikh Mohammed’s “admission” is immediately diminished due to the Orwellian nature of the Bush Administration and its policies for bringing “justice” to the terrorists.

Steve, Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Should the accused (who happens to be an alleged enemy combatant) be tried according to the US laws? Do the international laws come into play? If they do why the tribunal is going ahead in total violation of the international laws?

Has the US administration declared itself to be the policeman and the judge? Why even at this stage the world judicial bodies are not being associated in this so-called judicial process? Will this result in ripping apart the stage-managed show?

These are the questions that are being asked world-wide and not just by me. And the absence of answers is seriously eroding US credibility all around.

I am curious to know the answers…without fudging the issue or digressions.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/graphics/pdf/ksmgitmo.pdf

Have you bothered to read the transcript yet? The confession he makes did not come from any CIA torture prison. It was given at the tribunal itself. And before it was given, he was asked by the tribunal President:

“The information that you are telling us today, so we are clear. You do not believe you are under any pressure or threat or duress to speak to us today, is that correct?”

KSM answered, “Yes, that is correct.”

His personal representative then reads a prepared statement where he confesses to these crimes. Partway through the reading, he interrupts to make a clarification to the statement by stating that he only shared responsibility for an assassination attempt against the Pope.

After the statement was read, the tribunal president asks him if those were his words. He states “Yes” and then adds that some of his operations were not associated with Al Qaeda but involved other groups. He’s asked several more time if he authored the document, he say’s yes.

After that he has about a 3 page verbal statement he give the tribunal, and he basically argues that yes he did all those things but he is a warrior at war with America and therefore he should not be considered an unlawful combatant. And that makes sense because that is what the tribunal was convened to determine.

Furthermore the WAPO story is factually incorrect – something you’d know if you read the transcript. KSM alleges abuse, but not in the written statement as the WAPO states. He alleged abuse in the tribunal itself, not the statement. It’s apparent the WAPO author hasn’t read the transcript either.

So please, read the f’ing transcript.

Is the USA waiting for a messiah to take the country out of its schizophrenia and the ‘I…me…and myself’ syndrome???

“The tribunal president also asked whether any statements he made under interrogation were ‘as the result of any of the treatment.’ Mohammed answered: ‘CIA peoples. Yes. At the beginning when they transferred me . . .’ The rest of the sentence is redacted from the transcript.”

Please remember that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was caught in a raid in Pakistan. There have been regular allegations that several people caught in Pakistan may not be the ‘real’ ones. It is said that many persons have been arrested and handed over to America just to get the fat reward money from the US administration. And the US generals and officials keep complaining that Pakistan is sheltering Taliban and Al Quaeda guys.

Hey, what’s going on??? If this was going on in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia one can understand. But in the USA with the intelligentsia opting to adopt the thinking and working style of closed societies…God save the world!!!

And since when do we give enemy combatants of any stripe the legal rights of common criminals under US law?

If this was done by any fascist or totalitarian regime one could understand. But since this is happening in the “freedom-loving” United States of America, one is left speechless.

And to top it all the entire media seems to maintain a mysterious silence and presents the whole case as if there is nothing wrong in this style getting a confession from an alleged criminal!!!