Welcome to Washington Politics at its Worst! KSM belongs in a U.S. Criminal Court

March 05, 2010  |  Posted by Danielle Belton

I didn't know we elected Sen. Lindsey Graham president? I didn't know White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was over the Department of Justice? Yet somehow the partisans have taken over what should be the domain of our independent criminal justice system.

The Washington Post is reporting today that the President's advisers are pushing for Obama to hold KSM and other Gitmo detainees trials in military commissions. Flawed, failed, constantly challenged for their constitutionality -- military commissions. All this compromise to keep Bush-Cheney Era national security policies in place even if Gitmo is closed.

This is wrong. And we need to tell the President it is wrong. (Join us at New Security Action. Right now we're sending letters to the White House demanding that KSM and other detainees have their day in court -- a U.S. court. Not a military commission. Click here to participate.)

Attorney General Eric Holder was right when he said KSM would be tried in a U.S. criminal court and face justice. To reverse on this decision because of pressure from the right wing and to win the favor of Sen. Graham would be, in a word, horrendous.

From The Washington Post:

Marine Col. Jeffrey Colwell, acting chief defense counsel at the Defense Department's Office of Military Commissions, said it would be a "sad day for the rule of law" if Obama decides not to proceed with a federal trial. "I thought the decision where to put people on trial -- whether federal court or military commissions -- was based on what was right, not what is politically advantageous," Colwell said.

Various news outlets have reported that Graham and Emanuel are in the middle of a tit-for-tat horse trade involving the closure of the prison at Guantanamo Bay in turn for the continuation of the failed national security policies of the Bush-Cheney administration. Change the location, but keep the lawlessness -- that's what Graham wants. That's what Emanuel is bargaining for. And now we have this story in The Washington Post. Why are we even discussing the continuation of policies that were deemed unconstitutional? Why are we "staying the course" on Bush Era policies that didn't work the first time?

Said Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham to Roll Call:

We must try them in a court bound by our laws, according to our laws, because anything else is something less. A substitute for a court of law is not a lesser court but a lawless institution. It is, as former Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, then chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, warned, a court created to convict as to which there can be no respect as to the outcome.

We can't go back.

Gitmo must close, but we also must end the policies that made Gitmo the horror show that is in the first place. We can't just change the address and continue to perpetuation the politicization of national security that happened under President Bush.

No trade for Gitmo's closure, President Obama. Say no to Bush Era policies.

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