Gitmo

9/11, Abdulmutallab, Barack Obama, Eric Holder, Flight 253, Gitmo, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Military Commissions

AG Eric Holder ‘not scared’ what KSM might say yet dodges reporter’s questions on 9/11 trial (Update: Bloomberg sings)

by  • 

Attorney General Eric Holder dodged a reporter’s questions yesterday about the 9/11 trials by sending security to block a clearly marked Fox News crew from approaching him. While Mr. Holder testified on November 18, 2009 that he was, “not scared of what Khalid Sheikh Mohammed might say at trial,” he has noticeably avoided tough questions since that day.

One might ask Mr. Holder if he is considering moving the 9/11 trial out of New York City and back to a Military Commissions. Many want to know who at the DOJ sent in the clean team with instructions to read Miranda warnings to Abdulmuttalab on Christmas Day, whereupon the Flight 253 bomber went silent and the gathering of intelligence ended. In addition, is there a Plan B for closing Gitmo if Congress does not lift the restrictions on moving those there to the United States for detention purposes?

On a related note, the advisory community board that encompasses the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan where the 9/11 trials would take place voted last night to ask the Obama administration to consider moving them elsewhere. [Added note: The New York Post reports that the board’s vote was unanimous, 42 to 0.] One resident had a pointed question that the Attorney General should also answer:

“In what communities in the United States of America are children required to walk by military conveys and snipers on a daily basis on their way to school?”

You can run, Mr. Holder, but you can not hide from the American people forever your views and plans on national security.

Update: New York City Mayor Bloomberg joins the chorus asking the trials to be moved. (Most are suggesting they be held on a military installation. Great idea! How about at Gitmo, using the military commissions Congress modified last year and President Obama signed into law?)

Andy McCarthy, Barack Obama, Flight 253, Gitmo, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Scott Brown

Andrew McCarthy: It’s the Enemy, Stupid; National-security strength lifts Scott Brown

by  • 

Andrew McCarthy of the National Review Online writes today of the turning point (towards victory last night) in Scott Brown’s campaign for the U.S. Senate:

It was health care that nationalized the special election for what we now know is the people’s Senate seat. But it was national security that put real distance between Scott Brown and Martha Coakley. “People talk about the potency of the health-care issue,” Brown’s top strategist, Eric Fehrnstrom, told National Review’s Robert Costa, “but from our own internal polling, the more potent issue here in Massachusetts was terrorism and the treatment of enemy combatants.” There is a powerful lesson here for Republicans, and here’s hoping they learn it.
…
Scott Brown went out and made the case for enhanced interrogation, for denying terrorists the rights of criminal defendants, for detaining them without trial, and for trying them by military commission. It worked. It will work for other candidates willing to get out of their Beltway bubbles.

Yes, the Left will say you are making a mockery of our commitment to “the rule of law.” MSNBC will run segments on your dark conspiracies to “shred the privacy rights of Americans.” The New York Times will wail that you’re heedless of the damage you’ll do to “America’s reputation in the international community.”

The answer is: So what? The people making these claims don’t speak for Americans — they speak at Americans, in ever shrinking amounts. If you’re going to cower from a fight with them, we don’t need you. Get us a Scott Brown who’ll take them on in their own backyard. And he’ll take them on with confidence because he knows their contentions are frivolous — and he knows that Americans know this, too.

I’ll add that the near mass-murder of those aboard Flight 253 and below on Christmas Day reminded America of the President’s most important job, national security.

President Barack Obama must lead the fight against Islamic radicals and radicalism, regardless of what he calls this war. Four recent polls — by CBS, Rasmussen, Quinnipiac, and Gallup — all indicate a huge majority of Americans want Gitmo kept open, military commissions used to prosecute Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other war criminals, and terrorists interrogated for intelligence without being allowed to remain silent. While wars are not fought or won by committee, Mr. Obama would be wise to consider the will of the people as he proceeds in this most important task.