Simon Says – Lets Use MSM’s Criminal Trial As a Teaching Tool « NewsReal Blog

Simon Says – Lets Use MSM’s Criminal Trial As a Teaching Tool « NewsReal Blog

The New York Times has defended the Obama administration’s unconscionable decision to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four of his al Qaeda cohorts in a federal court in Manhattan under the rules applicable to everyday criminal defendants.

Aside from the bogus constitutional law arguments claiming that such trials are required, which I discussed in yesterday’s blog, the argument in favor of affording MSM and his colleagues full constitutional protections in our civil court system is that it will supposedly show the world how fair our system is, in contrast to the terrorists’ atrocities. In today’s New York Times, this argument is carried to its illogical conclusion in an op-ed article by Steven Simon, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Simon was wrong in the past about Iraq and even more wrong today about the merits of trying KSM in our civil courts.

After dismissing out of hand the real possibility that KSM could exploit legal technicalities at his trial and be set free because of the lack of admissible evidence, Mr. Simon says that the trial will be a learning opportunity for the Muslim world that will lead jihadists to put down their arms.

Simon says:

It is strongly in our interest to reinforce these trends by underscoring the terrorists’ killings of civilians and our own commitment to the rule of law

Simon points to prominent radical clerics whom, he claims, have already “reversed course in recent years” and argues that the KSM trial will accelerate that trend.

One of the clerics cited by Simon as an example of such conversion is Yusuf al-Qaradhawi (also spelled Qaradawi). Simon praises Qaradhawi for advancing a “jurisprudence of jihad” that “forbids the killing of most civilians”.