U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced last week that the admitted mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, would be transferred from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and tried in New York City, just blocks away from the location where his insidious plan caused the deaths of more than 2,000 innocent people.
In a stunning reversal of centuries-old methods of trying war criminals via military tribunal, the man who confessed to killing thousands in 2001 will now be granted every civil right found in the Constitution, once again highlighting President Barack Obama’s apparent indifference to the safety of this country.
It should come as no surprise that Holder, a man who seemingly has a soft spot for terrorists, would bestow constitutional rights on a man such as Mohammed. Holder is the same man who recommended clemency for 16 members of the Boricua Popular Army, a group classified as a terrorist organization by the FBI.
Given his past and his decision to impart constitutional rights to enemy combatants, one may wonder how Holder, with his utterly horrific record in matters of national security, was named attorney general by our 44th president. The answer is that Holder and Obama share a common goal: to roll back the safety measures that have kept this country safe since Sept. 11 and reinstate the Clinton-era policy of treating terrorist activity as a simple crime, not an act of war.
Obama set the tone for this reversal early in his presidency by having the term ‘war on terror’ scrapped and reclassifying it as an ‘overseas contingency plan.’ Another example of downplaying the terrorist threat is that the administration now classifies acts of terror as ‘man-caused disasters.’
Just this week, Obama requested that the Senate hold off on an investigation into the possible terrorist ties of the accused Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan in a vain attempt to be able to continue to deny the obvious: Obama has overseen the first successful Islamic terrorist attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11.
To put it bluntly, our childlike emperor is either in over his head or simply delusional.
It must also be pointed out that former President George W. Bush’s administration also deserves a fair share of the blame for Mohammed still being alive. Had the Bush administration done a better job in its quest to prosecute the accused, Holder and Obama would not have the option of rewarding him with his incredibly undeserved Constitutional rights.
Many problems will arise from this egregious decision. Mohammed was reportedly waterboarded 183 times, never given his Miranda rights, held with no access to a lawyer and the list goes on.
Any lawyer worth a tin penny will use these and other technicalities to attempt to get their client off scot-free.
Another problem is that New York City, the most tempting target for terrorist attacks, just became more enticing.
Timothy Mathis is a history senior and may be reached at [email protected]
