Full Court Press
Welcome to U.S. Court System 101
In an obvious attempt to placate a pissed Persian potentate, VP Joe “Footinmouth” Biden said the United States would appeal the recent decision made by the US Federal Court in Washington DC to dismiss charges against five Blackwater Worldwide guards.
Six Blackwater guards had been involved in what can only be described as a massacre when, having been hired to protect US diplomats as they traveled in Baghdad, they opened fire at a crowded intersection and mowed down seventeen people, including women and children. One of the guards pleaded guilty to manslaughter and other charges while the other five pled not guilty. Details of what actual threat was faced at the time of the shooting are sketchy. The guards claim they were under attack. The prosecution claims they were unprovoked. But with a body count of seventeen that includes women and kids the Iraqis had demanded that the Blackwater guards be tried for murder in Iraq, a demand the US refused. Federal Judge Ricardo Urbina said in a December 31st ruling that prosecutors had mishandled key evidence in the 2007 shooting and violated the guard’s constitutional rights therefore compelling him to dismiss the case.
I cannot speak to the merits of the case, but regardless of the how’s and the why’s, seventeen people being gunned down as they walked the streets of Baghdad by forces under US employ certainly indicates somebody is responsible for something.
But that’s not how it works in our court system. You can be guilty as hell but if the prosecution makes a legal mistake in their efforts to convict you, you walk out of court a free man. Do the initials O.J. ring a bell? A member of Simpson’s famed defense team was F. Lee Bailey. I recall back in the early 1970’s while promoting his book “The Defense Never Rests” Bailey made an appearance on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. During his interview he stated quite plainly that if you could afford a defense like he could provide, you were almost assured of an acquittal, but if you were poor and unable to mount that kind of defense you may as well “bring your toothbrush to court because you are going to jail”.
The Obama administration can feign outrage at the technical dismissal of the Blackwater guards and put on a good show by appealing the decision but this court case clearly displays the insanity of their decision to prosecute Islamic terrorists in the federal court system rather than by a military panel. Be assured these terrorists will be given an F. Lee Bailey type defense.
In the media frenzied trial that awaits to prosecute these murderous zealots, a trial that will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in legal defense and increased security costs for all involved, the terrorists will not actually be on trial but rather their captors will. The defense will demand access to top secret intelligence and the CIA interrogators, who have dedicated their lives to protecting this country, will be the ones whose actions are scrutinized. These Islamic fascists, whose sole purpose in life is to kill Americans, will be afforded all of the same constitutional rights as the natural born American citizens they seek to kill. Their legal defense team will mount a defense by calling into question the constitutionality of every action that has been taken against them and every interrogator that has ever spoken to them. If they are successful, evil will walk out the door of the federal courthouse in New York City and, much like many of those released from Guantanamo Bay for repatriation, they will be free to pick up where they left off in their plans of mass murder and national destruction.
Our court system was designed to adjudicate American laws. It was never intended to prosecute acts of war. If the Blackwater guards had been tried by the military that subcontracted them there is a pretty good chance all those involved would have pled guilty or been found guilty by the standards of military law.
The world will be watching and our enemies will be taking notes as we prosecute the masterminds of the 9-11 attacks as if they had shoplifted from the gift shop of the World Trade Center and Pentagon rather than flown passenger loaded planes into them. The same holds true for the now infamous Christmas Day Nigerian Underpants Bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a guy recruited by terrorists released from Guantanamo Bay. The legal precedent set by the Obama administration in using the courts will affect how we deal with our enemies for many years to come.
Does any of this make you feel safe? Not me.
Maybe that’s the CHANGE he was talking about.
