Hey, Let’s Move the KSM Terror Trials to the Suburbs!
Hopes (if that’s the right word) for a civilian trial in the Big Apple for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his Club Gitmo pals is fading faster than sunshine in Seattle. Mayor Bloomberg has gone sour on the plan, the Governor doesn’t want it to happen and congressional support is wavering. But this week a new proposal was put forward. The mayor of Newburgh, New York (population roughly 28,000) which lies roughly 90 minutes upstate from New York City, has offered up his town as a site for the trials. (For the record, Newburgh lies in my home congressional district.) How will the locals and area politicians react? Could a place like that handle the three ring circus which would ensue? I cover these questions and more in my latest column at Pajamas Media. Check it out and let us know what you think.
7 Responses to “Hey, Let’s Move the KSM Terror Trials to the Suburbs!”
I know one Upstate city, and no, it's not Ithaca (though it could be Ithaca, too) — if the terrorists were put on trial, there might be demonstrations near the site, with people carrying signs saying “Bush and Cheney, the REAL Terrorists — Put THEM on Trial!” (The mayor, at the time I left, was a “progressive,” and the owner of an establishment in town that had live music and matinees on Sundays of films that featured Chomsky, etc., used to go on stage between acts or sets and bash Bush all the time.)
Congratz on living in district with a pair. I find those “not in my state” people to be nothing more than cowards.
America: A nation so in thrall with semiotics and puerile exercises in imbuing meaning in phenomena that it can't function normally.
It's a TRIAL. It's not a referendum on 9/11 or the War on Terror or Cheney or whateverhaveyou. It's something that happens in society, it's something that happens when civilization goes beyond frontier “justice” and all this chatter surrounding it is lowly, plebeian and probably a masturbatory act for those involved.
Goodness gracious.
Considering that the city of Newburgh is as poor as a church mouse, who can blame them for picking up the easy money on the table?
Have we, as a country, forgotten that trials are a GOOD THING??? This is a chance to not only show that the United States is a nation of justice (which can't be said for many countries in the Muslim world), but is also a chance to educate the American people on the whys and wheretofores of international terrorism.
A good thing about public trials is the educational opportunities they provide. People need to know how evil thinks and works, a public trial can show that.
A military trial still has many advantages. Perhaps O's new found pragmatism, which I applaud, could agree to this.
Again, there is a solution we have already paid for, complete with high security prison, and trained personnel to operate it in Cuba. Are we concerned about spending or not? Are we concerned about security or not? Does anyone really think that the Jihadists or the Euroleft is going to be converted to adoration for America if we hold tribunals in Gitmo? This isn't a partisan issue, its a common sense issue. We are at War, not Ethics Training class.