Michael Daly of NY Daily News on New York Terror Trials

Here's a great article by Michael Daly from yesterday's NY Daily News on the upcoming New York Terror Trials. I couldn't have said it better myself:


Daly: 9/11 Terrorist Khalid Shaikh Mohammed & Crew will Face Jury -- Like any other Criminal Trash

By MICHAEL DALY

New York Daily News --- Sunday, November 15th 2009, 4:00 AM

If KSM decides to plead guilty in Manhattan Federal Court, he will do so as a criminal afraid to face the judgment of everyday people.

Every time the jury enters the courtroom, the clerk calls out an order.

"All rise!"

All would include Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his co-defendants. They would be required to stand for a group of everyday folks much like those who were murdered at the towers just a dozen blocks away.

These jurors will have been drawn at random from a list of registered voters. Their faces will no doubt be as varied as those on the missing flyers after 9/11.

The random victims at the World Trade Center perished at the start of a workday. These random jurors will begin the work day by filing into Manhattan Federal Court. Only after they are seated will the defendants be allowed to sit.

Mohammed and his crew of morally stunted lowlifes can glare and smirk all they want. Their fate will still be in the hands of 12 citizens whose very presence in the jury box gives lie to what the extremists preach about America.

Power here ultimately resides in people of all races, faiths and orientation who each have an equal say, be it in the voting booth or the jury room.

Mohammed and his pals must have been thrilled when 9/11 roused us to a global war on terrorism, as if they were more than just a ragtag bunch of killers.

They wanted nothing more than to imagine themselves holy warriors. We gave them a war to do it in when we should have stayed focused on catching the rest of the perps as we would in any other murder case.

Just when we had Osama Bin Laden trapped in his cave, we let him get away and went after Saddam Hussein in his palaces.

We did manage to get Mohammed, but even then we made him more than just a killer.

We elevated him to an "enemy combatant." And we lost such faith in our own system that we built special jails for him and his bunch outside the United States.

While he was being waterboarded, Mohammed no doubt suffered as much as we might hope. But when it was over he had the immense satisfaction of knowing we had reduced ourselves even as we further elevated him.

That ends now.

The government has announced that Mohammed and his pals will be put on trial like any other criminals in the jurisdiction where the crime was committed.

Mohammed will be reduced to what he really is. We will be restored to who we truly are.

And what President Obama should say is that in our shock and grief and anger after 9/11 we lost focus, but now have it back.

Our primary purpose in going into Afghanistan was to catch the people who murdered thousands of innocents.

We have caught some and we will keep on until we grab the rest.