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Case in point: The decision of the federal government to place the Guantanamo Bay detainees on trial in New York in a civilian federal court.
We are talking about self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees. Mohammed and the four others -- Waleed bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi and Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali -- are accused of orchestrating the attacks that killed 2,973 people on Sept. 11, 2001.
Just who are these people? According to an article written by Devlin Barrett of the AP, they are:
Mohammed admitted to interrogators that he was the mastermind of the attacks -- he allegedly proposed the concept to Osama bin Laden as early as 1996, obtained funding for the attacks from bin Laden, oversaw the operation and trained the hijackers in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
- Bin Attash, a Yemeni, allegedly ran an al-Qaida training camp in Logar, Afghanistan, where two of the 19 hijackers were trained. Bin Attash is believed to have been bin Laden's bodyguard. Authorities say bin Laden selected him as a hijacker, but he was prevented from participating when he was briefly detained in Yemen in early 2001.
- Binalshibh, a Yemeni, allegedly helped find flight schools for the hijackers, helped them enter the United States and assisted with financing the operation. He allegedly was selected to be a hijacker and made a "martyr video" in preparation for the operation, but was unable to get a U.S. visa. He also is believed to be a lead operative for a foiled plot to crash aircraft into London's Heathrow Airport.
- Ali allegedly helped nine of the hijackers travel to the United States and sent them $120,000 for expenses and flight training. He is believed to have served as a key lieutenant to Mohammed in Pakistan. He was born in Pakistan and raised in Kuwait.
- Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, a Saudi, allegedly helped the hijackers with money, western clothing, traveler's checks and credit cards. Al-Hawsawi testified in the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, saying he had seen Moussaoui at an al-Qaida guesthouse in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in early 2001, but was never introduced to him or conducted operations with him.
Let's see, by my count, that is two Yemenis, a Saudi, a Pakistani and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
I do not see any American citizens in that bunch. So why are they being accorded the rights guaranteed to American citizens?
The same courtesy is not being offered to other terrorist suspects. Attorney General Eric Holder has announced that a major suspect in the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, will face justice before a military commission, as will a handful of other detainees.
Why are some terror suspects being treated like American citizens while others are being handled like prisoners of war?
Perhaps that is because this administration has a schizophrenic approach to the war on terror. Either we are at war on these terrorists or we are not. trying to have it both ways is a recipe for a failure we cannot afford.
Perhaps the decision for a show trial in New York is the result of a political agenda. President Obama's campaign pledge to close the terror suspect detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba has been extended and the new deadline of Jan. 22, may not be reasonable. No one really wants a jail full of terror suspects in their backyard.
President Obama said the decision to have civilian trials was a legal and national security matter. "I am absolutely convinced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be subjected to the most exacting demands of justice," Obama said.
Civilian justice, that is. You can be certain defense attorneys will open up a whole can of worms that simply would not have been condoned under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Barrett points out that the New York case may also force the court system "to confront a host of difficult legal issues surrounding counter-terrorism programs begun after the 2001 attacks, including the harsh interrogation techniques once used on some of the suspects while in CIA custody. The most severe method - waterboarding, or simulated drowning - was used on Mohammed 183 times in 2003, before the practice was banned."
A fair trail is always the goal of these proceedings so how does the administration hope to get a fair trial at a courthouse in lower Manhattan, just blocks from where the World Trade Center towers once stood?
In the military system, the five Sept. 11 suspects had faced the death penalty, but it is not certain if the Justice Department would will seek the death penalty once they are in the federal system. The administration has already sent one Guantanamo detainee, Ahmed Ghailani, to New York to face trial, but chose not to seek death in that case.
This decision is an insult to the memories of those who perished on Sept. 11. These suspects are prisoners in an undeclared war; a war where the enemy fights with tactics that fall far outside the accepted behavior of belligerents.
They should be shown the same clemency they showed their victims.
And that is my view from Main Street, Bart.
