Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other '9/11 plotters' in court
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks have appeared before a US military tribunal at Guantanamo to be charged.
Spoiler alert:
They will be found guilty.
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May 5, 2012
KSM Trial – Spoiler Alert
Comments
Of course they’re going to be found guilty, otherwise this “trial” would never have been allowed to proceed.
Posted by: Pyrrho | May 5 2012 18:09 utc | 2
They will be found guilty.
Certainly.
The question is whether they will be executed. This is going to be a sensitive issue. US sentiments of “string ’em up” are going to be strong, perhaps irresistable. On the other hand, the public spectacle of execution is going to disgust the rest of the world. It’s about the worst advertisement of American habits that one can imagine. Washington may hesitate at that. Depends of course on who’s president.
Posted by: alexno | May 5 2012 19:21 utc | 3
waterboarded 183 times … hearsay
http://therealnews.com/t2/component/hwdvideoshare/?task=viewvideo&video_id=73611
steven kay tells it like it is …
in the meantime, noone seems to take this court seriously
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/05/2784792/accused-911-planners-defiant-in.html
Posted by: somebody | May 5 2012 20:06 utc | 4
You’re even more cynical than me b.
Wish I could be around in about 100 years to see how history reads all this imperial drama. Maybe by then then the ages of empire will be over and our species will have evolved into something moral and intelligent. What, me a cynic? or is that: What me worry?
Posted by: juannie | May 5 2012 21:04 utc | 5
Well it could be worse – they could have civilian trials.
So slavish and subservient are federal judges when it comes to Muslim defendants that if you’re a Muslim accused of any Terror-related crime, you’re probably more likely at this point to get something approximating a fair trial before a Guantanamo military tribunal than in a federal court; that is how supine federal judges have been when the U.S. Government utters the word “terrorism” in the direction of a Muslim or any claims of “national security” relating to 9/11.
Posted by: edwin | May 5 2012 21:42 utc | 6
@somebody Did you even watch that video link of Stephen Kaye? At no time does he refute the contention that Sheik Muhammed was water-boarded 180+ times. As far as the hearsay bit goes he points out that while the rules of this court prohibit the use of statements that have been obtained by coercion, it doesn’t stop the use of evidence that has been obtained by coercion.
In other words someone’s hearsay evidence can be used against another defendant if it was obtained by torture, but self incrimination obtained by torture is banned, so the court will convict by selectively editing one defendant’s testimony to convict another defendant.
more oblamblam doubletalking bullshit.
Posted by: Debs is dead | May 5 2012 22:01 utc | 7
sorry Debs is dead, I was too short. you summed up what Stephen Kaye said and what I meant.
al queida is winning not by 9/11 but by this court case.
Posted by: somebody | May 5 2012 23:10 utc | 8
so when do they start the trial/tribunal of the US/Israeli conspirators?
Posted by: Proton Soup | May 5 2012 23:14 utc | 9
@somebody I am likewise sorry it occurred to me after I posted and reread yer post that maybe that was what you intended. As a contrarian opposed to twitter (acott) I’m useless at deriving meaning from from 120< characters.
I realise many will disagree specially those who enjoy the game of politics or the drama of judicial hearings no matter how corrupt the court, but for me the only viable option to adopt with the military commissions organised by a corrupt imperial administration against the few individuals who resist the empire, is to ignore the whole farce.
Talking, much less reading about this cynical construct only serves to give the big lie oxygen. It is about time That khalid sheik mohammed, osama bin laden & their mates were embraced as heroes by all who claim to oppose empire.
Posted by: Debs is dead | May 6 2012 0:55 utc | 10
BTW, is anyone else having trouble seeing Glenn Greenwald’s posts at Salon? They have that new red and black color theme, and all I can see is plain black with sprinklings of red lettered words which I assume are links. I can mouse over the title and see letters, but I can’t get any words to appear in a nice, steady readable form….
This happened a while ago, but I was able to click the title and get a page which showed the text. No longer.
Anyone else have this problem? Bad times, bcz I really miss reading Greenwald.
Posted by: jawbone | May 6 2012 2:05 utc | 11
Well, I can see Greenwald just fine in Firefox, but not in IE8.
Posted by: jawbone | May 6 2012 2:08 utc | 12
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed proved his worth in Bosnia. Now they need him in Syria. A swift “execution” will purge his name from all the databases, so he can move freely again. That he was waterboarded 183 times probably means he taught 183 classes in torture.
Posted by: Bob Jackson | May 6 2012 7:05 utc | 13
jawbone May 5, 2012 10:05:21 PM @ 11.
Yeah, that annoys me, too.
Try highlighting it. That usually makes it readable. If not, and as a last resort if you’re sure the article is worth reading, you can save it to a temporary text file to find out.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | May 6 2012 7:54 utc | 14
Copy & paste it to a temp text file – not save.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | May 6 2012 7:57 utc | 15
Reminds me of the famous movie quote:
We’re gonna give you a fair trial, followed by a first class hanging.
– Silverado 1985.
Posted by: Colm O’ Toole | May 6 2012 12:11 utc | 16
The Israeli conspirators;The dancing Israelis,the art students,the MSM or our government?Which to choose first for trial?
So many to choose from.
Posted by: dahoit | May 6 2012 14:05 utc | 17
the funny thing is that it is a lose lose (lose) situation…
- if they are found guilty, the US’s already spotty human rights record gets another spot; the drug industry gets a few less users and the US needs something new to hate/be scared of…
- if they are not found guilty, the US faces posible revolts, gets seen by the rest of the world as not being as mighty they like to make others think they are…
- if they delegate or delay the trial by another 5 years (for the following presidential election campaign or something…), high costs, worse human rights record… and possibly also riots (grieving people are somewhat harder to predict)
@Alexno – On the other hand, the public spectacle of execution is going to disgust the rest of the world. It’s about the worst advertisement of American habits that one can imagine. Washington may hesitate at that. Depends of course on who’s president.
If Obama is then still president they will be executed.
The “trial” will never finish. Kangaroo court or not, the gov’t cannot afford the risk of an actual conviction and inevitable precedents/appeals/overturns.
This will muddle on indefinitely until the defendants are all dead.
Of “natural causes”, of course. 😉
Posted by: Jeremiah | May 6 2012 17:09 utc | 20
Funny thing is the US regimes regularly make use of muslims and esp muslim terrorists to aid foreign policy goals: witness US aid to the jihadis in Kosovo Libvya Syria…
why dont clueless muslims stop working with the US?
Posted by: brian | May 6 2012 22:03 utc | 21
I’m surprised Obomba didn’t attend,and say,”Let the show trials begin”like Caesar.
Posted by: dahoit | May 7 2012 14:30 utc | 22
@brian – islamists and the Us have common enemies: lay states, progressives, nationalists, Shiites, etc
Posted by: claudio | May 7 2012 22:40 utc | 23
KSM has confessed to everything and anything.
Including killing Daniel Pearl, Omar Sheik is in prison for that in Pakistan (he didn’t do it either, btw.) This provides grounds for appeal by Omar Sheik’s lawyers.
Incl. the 93 WTC attacks, the Bali bombings, Richard Reid the shoe bomber, and to try to kill the Pope, amongst others. He is a veteran of Bosnia, has been linked to the ISI.
What is most curious is the lack of interest of the US public. The supposed ‘mastermind’ of 9/11 – responsible thus for killing near on 3 000 US citizens (some not citizens but on US soil), is ignored. Nobody is interested. It is just, nothing to see here, move along.
The Moussaoui trial was the same kind of farce, and was ignored as well. The trials Mounir al Motassadeq (friend of Atta and Jarrah) in Germany hardly gathered any attention. As if the good Americans understand that it is best to not look, and just bow to authorities – Al Q may be infiltrating our college, hiding in the bushes, bombing and oppressing women, etc. but for the rest, who knows.
All the other trials, against the airlines, against the Saudis, against airport security, the US Gvmt, al Quaida, Charities, etc. have been buried and junked. Move along! (there may be one two still ongoing, I haven’t keep strict tabs.)
A pick of bizarro cases, the first, granted, in NY, blames Iran and claims damages:
http://iran911case.com/
Another strange tale, a lawsuit against Cheney and Rumsfeld.
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?noframes;read=201431
9/11 spawned litigation by those who felt badly done by:
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dorf/20090520.html
to sum up:
As for the Manhattan court, spokeswoman Stephanie Cirkovich said it disposed of about 10,000 cases arising from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. !! 😉
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/03/911_cases_cited_for_slow_pace.html
Posted by: Noirette | May 11 2012 16:19 utc | 24
re Noirette 24
The Israelis appreciated long ago that you can sell middle America anything, including snake-oil, as they don’t know anything outside their world. Netanyahu said it clearly in his unfortunate video when he admitted that the US was easy to manipulate.
The GOP learnt it later, and then the media.
Control the media, and you control opinion. That’s the situation. No need to express truth.
Posted by: alexno | May 11 2012 20:30 utc | 25