Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was escorted into a Detroit courtroom today, where his lawyers entered a not guilty plea.
I cannot believe I just wrote that sentence. Let me re-write it:
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (the terrorist) was escorted into a Detroit courtroom today (as if he had the same rights as American citizens), where his lawyers entered a not guilty plea (despite the nearly 300 witnesses on the plane that saw his crotch catch fire as the bomb he was supposed to explode the plane with failed to detonate correctly).
Rudy Giuliani hit the nail on the head this morning during an interview with George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America:
This isn’t about whether you convict him or not, this is about whether you get information or not. If you put someone in a civilian court, within a short time a lawyer is appointed and the person shuts up. If you have a person in the military system you can question him endlessly for as long as you have to, make sure you’ve gotten the full scope of information, and here’s the most important point, you get it timely.
Yesterday, President Obama lectured the intelligence agencies for failing to keep our homeland safe. He’s right in that we need to do everything possible to keep terrorists off our planes. But that should be our second line of defense. The first line of defense should be making them too scared to even think about boarding the plane.
How do you terrify a terrorist? Not even the death penalty means much, because they’re all suicide bombers. They’re ready for the afterlife (at least they think they are. I bet meeting Satan sort of sucks…). Do we threaten them with a lifetime in prison without trial on a tropical island, where they get 3 meals a day and free access to pray to their God for The Great Satan(America)’s destruction? Geez, no wonder the Gitmo detainees don’t want to leave… Sounds a lot better than living in a cave in Yemen! Even if they do manage to get back to their cave in Yemen, they will have fresh information to spread amongst their brothers about our safety and security procedures.
Is there anyway to scare terrorists off planes, then? Everyone’s afraid of something… Terrorists are afraid of being tortured into giving up valuable secrets about their organization, location, future plans, or any other information that might be floating about in their twisted little brains. To do so would not only harm their mission, but would bring shame upon them and possibly damnation from their god.
It’s insane that Abdulmutallab is being given a civil trial. If convicted, he could serve up to a life sentence. Here’s the message that sends to the other terrorists back home:
Keep up the good work boys! There’s nothing to be afraid of with these silly Americans; they’ll even let you on the plane if they know you work for al-Queda. Getting through security is not too bad, they’re so busy making sure everyone dumps out their water bottle and has the correct size sandwich baggies that they easily overlook us. If they do examine you closely, be sure to threaten a discrimination lawsuit. That usually does the trick. And don’t worry if you screw up and the bomb doesn’t detonate, because you’ll never have to say a thing in The Great Satan’s generous legal system. If released, you may return immediately to us and rejoin the mission, or if imprisoned, you may pray continually for our cause.
Welcome aboard flight number…
Evalynne Beth says:
Isn’t it in our constitution to provide any criminal a fair hearing in a court of law? I agree he should be punished for his actions if he is guilty but denying a person, ANY PERSON, his constitutional rights makes us as bad as terrorists. Thats one step away from saying “He’s guilty, we know it, we don’t need a judge to tell us that, lets just hang him from that tree over there.”
You’re patriotism, is unquestionable, but sometimes, it begins to sound a little racist.
January 8, 2010, 2:38 pmHAVE TO POST DUE TO INANE COMMENT POSTED AHEAD OF ME. says:
What is racist in this post?
January 8, 2010, 3:49 pmJenny says:
Evalynne, he has no Constitutional rights as he is not a citizen in this country. Furthermore, as a terrorist, he’s not even protected by the Geneva Convention.
January 8, 2010, 3:52 pmRocin says:
Uh, he doesn’t HAVE any constitutional rights. It doesn’t matter what race he is, he is a foreign national who attacked this country.
January 8, 2010, 3:54 pmIf we had captured one of the pilots that bombed Pearl Harbor, would they have had a right to a civil trial?
No, they were enemy combatants!
Melanie says:
Response to Evalynne Beth: Having a hard time finding the racism in the post myself… Is it the hanging? You are aware that death by hanging has been a standard form of execution for many years for peoples of all backgrounds and skin shades???
January 8, 2010, 9:31 pmEvalynne Beth says:
Just this and your last post, where you write …”profiling passengers that fit the description of al-Qaeda operatives”. and your attitude here. How do you know what an Al Qaeda Operative looks like? They come in all skin shades as well.
Next, if you to another country and they accuse you of a crime, should you not have any protection because you’re not a citizen of that country? Whether guilty or not, any person needs a FAIR TRIAL FIRST. Just because someone on the plane said they saw something happen, doesn’t make it a fact. I agree, he probably is guilty but in this country he is innocent until proven guilty. I don’t care how many people saw something happen or claim to have seen it. Not every person in this world is honest, not every person in this world wouldn’t fabricate information if they thought it would get them on TV for five minutes. It is up to a Judge and jury to determine guilt based off of evidence.
I agree the guilty need to be punished but its not up to LYNCH MOBS to determine guilt.
January 8, 2010, 11:04 pmRocin says:
Hmmm, my seemingly brilliant and insightful comment yesterday didn’t make the cut (tough moderator!), so I’ll try this one:
We have no reason to extend the protections of the Bill of Rights to foreign nationals who attack us.
January 9, 2010, 12:44 pmFor example,if we had managed to catch one of the men who bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, we certainly would not have tried him for criminal activity in a civil court.
I don’t think there is anything racial involved in this, just basic common law tradition.
Once we extend these rights, intended for residents of this country to others, where do we stop?
If our soldiers capture enemy combatants in Afghanistan, are we now required to provide them with lawyers, and read them their constitutional rights?
Jenny says:
Rocin, there wasn’t a comment from you yesterday, even in the spam folder… maybe it didn’t send for some reason? You comments are always welcome; they are thoughtful and articulate.
January 9, 2010, 1:55 pmEvalynne Beth says:
and my second comment that I sent in wasn’t thoughtful and articulate? is that why my comment didn’t go through or did it just get lost like Rocin’s
January 9, 2010, 4:34 pmJenny says:
Evalynne, I posted everything I got yesterday. I’ll have my tech guy take a look at it and see if some were lost. I just write, I’m not so great with the technical side of things!
January 9, 2010, 4:43 pmJenny says:
Lovely… they were hidden in the spam folder after all, amongst 100s of advertisements for viagra and porn sites. Lovely. I’ll try to figure out a better filter…
January 9, 2010, 4:49 pmRocin says:
I wonder what Evalynne and I write that makes it look like spam? Looks like an intelligent discussion of an important issue to me, but apparently not to some computer!
January 9, 2010, 5:14 pmEvalynne Beth says:
ha ha sorry
January 9, 2010, 11:40 pm