War Court vs. Civilian Trial

Well what do ya know, Justice {Civilian Courts} still works in the U.S.! Another of the Gitmo detainee’s, only this one went to trial, was found that the U.S. Government didn’t have much evidence of his guilt. Same for the hundreds let go after years being held and most likely tortured after the bush admin picked them off the streets or wherever and whisked them away to other countries prisons, so the U.S. could denie the torture, and to Guantanamo and held incommunicado from the outside world, human rights, defense of charges and any evidence of what they were charged with!

Another Omar Khadr in Gitmo, a kid when grabbed, pleaded guilty in a deal made after being charged with terrorist crimes but doing same as any soldier does, but see he’s a terrorist and not a soldier {we say so} even though doing what he was charged with in his own country and against an invading army as family and friends are killed and then held for years far from home. Some released took their plight to courts others may have sought out and now really are what they were charged with and called in retaliation for the abuses they suffered!

November 18, 2010 – A New York jury Wednesday convicted a former Guantanamo captive of conspiring in al Qaeda’s 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in East Africa, capping a trial that was seen as a model for White House plans to close the prison camps in Cuba.

The Tanzanian-born Ahmed Ghailani, 36, had claimed he was duped into buying a truck and components for explosives used in the attacks that killed 224 people and maimed thousands from Nairobi to Dar es Salaam. The federal jury of six men and six women apparently agreed to some degree, convicting him of conspiring to destroy U.S. buildings but clearing him of 224 individual counts of murder and murder conspiracy.

“We respect the jury’s verdict and are pleased that Ahmed Ghailani now faces a minimum of 20 years in prison and a potential life sentence for his role in the embassy bombings,” said the Justice Department’s Matthew Miller.

While the Justice Department hailed the verdict as a victory, it was likely to be used by opponents of civilian trials as a sign of the weakness of the civilian court system. {read rest}

As soon as the verdict came down the Spin started though, sounding much more like the direction we’ve moved especially in the past decade, like this: CBS News National Security Analyst Juan Zarate described the verdict as “a disaster” for the government..

A Country that once, and still arrogantly, prided itself of one of Law and many claim christian beliefs, condemning others for that which we now openly do. A suspect in this so called War on Terrorism, as we wage our own against others {the residents of the countries invaded, destroyed and occupied would call their plight daily 9/11’s lasting years now}, are guilty as soon as they were grabbed, wherever, courts and trials are just a formality similar to what a dictatorship or our thoughts on communist countries and similar do, theater for others. Guilty as charged, forget any proof, as soon as grabbed and taken far away from any and everything they know, held for years and not shown proof of charges nor with the ability to talk to anyone, in many cases their families didn’t even know what happened to them as for a long time names were kept secret.

Yes Justice does work, is he guilty of all the charges, apparently not, no proof, again like hundreds already released and never tried. Is he even guilty of the one found to be so, who knows, that’s part of the theater of the new American standard of what we are now. After all ‘we’ said he’s a ‘terrorist’, while waging our own on others even torture, and we say he’s ‘guilty’ because well he’s one of ‘them’ as we condemn whole groups we are directed to fear!

November 17, 2010, New York – In reaction to the verdict in the trial of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, convicted of one count of conspiracy for his role in the 1998 bombings of the United States Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and acquitted of the remaining 284 counts, the Center for Constitutional Rights, which filed an amicus brief in the case, issued the following statement:

   

CCR questions the ability of anyone who is Muslim to receive a truly fair trial in any American judicial forum post-9/11.  Both the military commission system and federal criminal trials have serious flaws.  However, on balance the Ghailani verdict shows that federal criminal trials are far superior to military commissions for the simple yet fundamental reason that they prohibit evidence obtained by torture.  If anyone is unsatisfied with Ghailani’s acquittal on 284 counts, they should blame the CIA agents who tortured him. {read rest}

And we still Condemn Others for their Human Rights Violations as set forth under International Law and even our own Domestic Laws!