...somehow I don't think it's coincidental that it took just long enough to put the case against them together that their trial will have to take place during the Presidential election campaign.
Six years, going on seven, and suddenly we're ready to go to court?
Why do I think that this is happening now so that the video from 9/11 gets played over and over again on the news for the next eight months?
Why do I think this is happening just so that the question "Senator Clinton/Senator Obama, do you think the US should execute the 9/11 conspirators?" gets asked in a variety of ways during every Presidential debate?
Why do I think this is happening now just so that John McCain gets to tell us early and often that there's no way if he's elected President these guys won't hang?
Why do I think the Maverick and Commander will never be asked what he thinks about the fact that one of them was tortured into confessing?
I don't know.
Must be something wrong with me.
Cynically updated Tuesday morning: Other jaded types chime in.
Will Bunch: Bush lays a Guantanamo trap...
Hullabaloo: Evidence from torture now admissible...
Rolling Stone: Truth or Terrorism---The Real Story Behind Five Years of High Alerts.
the morning after super tuesday there was news alert about how al quaeda is raising a new generation of terrorists. You cant imagine my suprise at the timing.
Posted by: Judith | Monday, February 11, 2008 at 06:20 PM
Perfect timing to establish the precedent that confessions obtained through torture will now be admissible in US courts. Could the dichotomy be any clearer that you're either with us or you're with the terrorists when to stand up for the rule of law means that you will let the Sept. 11 planners walk?
You people are being asked to swallow an awful lot under the hope that the nightmare will end with a free vote and a voluntary transfer of power. It might be worth thinking about how one should react if that doesn't happen. The project of taking back your country might properly be considered a campaign at this point, with some thought given to contingencies that are outside of the traditions.
Posted by: Ken Muldrew | Monday, February 11, 2008 at 06:36 PM
Why? (to all of the above):
Inexperience with the federal justice system.
First, if this trial starts before Inauguration Day, I'd be shocked. Second, a conspiracy like the one you're suggesting implies an ability to coordinate. This is after all, to borrow that great X-Files line, the government that brought us Amtrac.
I hear what you're saying here, but I just don't see it as anything more than coincidence. The federal system (much like the military itself) marches to its own drummer.
Posted by: Chris the Cop | Monday, February 11, 2008 at 07:01 PM
And Ken M., I think your second paragraph is just plain silly. The next president is going to be a current US senator: Clinton, McCain or Obama. To hint that the country will have to be "taken back" if the wrong one wins, implying something darker than "a free vote and a voluntary transfer of power" is just your imagination running amuck.
Posted by: Chris the Cop | Monday, February 11, 2008 at 07:09 PM
Josef Stalin would be so proud.
Posted by: lina | Monday, February 11, 2008 at 07:11 PM
Boy are you ever a CYNIC!
I'm sure it's just a big coincident.
Posted by: wa | Monday, February 11, 2008 at 11:29 PM
on the other hand, this will be an opportunity for both hillary and obama to pull out their own versions of 'tough on terrorism' personae. hillary is certainly not a death penalty abolitionist and obama has not come out strongly against it either and i doubt very much that he will. i think this is one of the very many points on which an obama presidency will sorely disappoint the broad base of african american supporters he has pulled so (in my opinion) unwittingly into his fold with his "soaring rhetoric" and the promise of a new camelot. (excuse me while i barf).
and, on a slightly different note, i think that, in large measure, both hillary's and schumer's votes for the iraq war were payback to bush for his commitment to federal funding for the rebuilding at ground zero.
Posted by: anita | Tuesday, February 12, 2008 at 08:11 AM