It Boggles the Mind
The Associated Press piece that ran in my (news)paper, the Boston Globe, today:
Holder, GOP at odds over trials
Devlin Barrett, Associated Press
March 17, 2010
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress yesterday that Osama bin Laden will never face trial in the United States because he will not be captured alive.
In testy exchanges with House Republicans, Holder compared terrorists to mass murderer Charles Manson and predicted that events would ensure “we will be reading Miranda rights to the corpse of Osama bin Laden’’ not to the Al Qaeda leader as a captive.
Holder sternly rejected criticism from GOP members of a House Appropriations subcommittee who contend it is too dangerous to put terror suspects on trial in federal civilian courts as Holder has proposed.
Holder said it infuriates him to hear conservative critics contend that terrorists would get too many rights in the court system.
Terrorists in court “have the same rights that Charles Manson would have, any other kind of mass murderer,’’ Holder said.
“It doesn’t mean that they’re going to be coddled. It doesn’t mean that they’re going to be treated with kid gloves.’’
The comparison to convicted killer Manson angered Representative John Culberson, a Republican of Texas, who said it showed the Obama administration does not understand the American public’s desire to treat terrorists as wartime enemies, not criminal defendants.
“My constituents and I just have a deep-seated and profound philosophical difference with the Obama administration,’’ Culberson said.
Holder, his voice rising, contended that Culberson’s arguments ignored basic facts about the law and the fight against terrorists.
“Let’s deal with reality,’’ Holder said. “The reality is that we will be reading Miranda rights to the corpse of Osama bin Laden. He will never appear in an American courtroom.’’ (End of Associated Press piece.)
The letter:
Editor,
The non-Geneva-Conventions-compliant battlefield execution is certainly one way for the Obama Administration to avoid the messy application of the 'rule of law' at trial (Holder, GOP at odds over trials; March17). (End of letter.)
The Associated Press piece that ran in my (news)paper, the Boston Globe, today:
Holder, GOP at odds over trials
Devlin Barrett, Associated Press
March 17, 2010
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress yesterday that Osama bin Laden will never face trial in the United States because he will not be captured alive.
In testy exchanges with House Republicans, Holder compared terrorists to mass murderer Charles Manson and predicted that events would ensure “we will be reading Miranda rights to the corpse of Osama bin Laden’’ not to the Al Qaeda leader as a captive.
Holder sternly rejected criticism from GOP members of a House Appropriations subcommittee who contend it is too dangerous to put terror suspects on trial in federal civilian courts as Holder has proposed.
Holder said it infuriates him to hear conservative critics contend that terrorists would get too many rights in the court system.
Terrorists in court “have the same rights that Charles Manson would have, any other kind of mass murderer,’’ Holder said.
“It doesn’t mean that they’re going to be coddled. It doesn’t mean that they’re going to be treated with kid gloves.’’
The comparison to convicted killer Manson angered Representative John Culberson, a Republican of Texas, who said it showed the Obama administration does not understand the American public’s desire to treat terrorists as wartime enemies, not criminal defendants.
“My constituents and I just have a deep-seated and profound philosophical difference with the Obama administration,’’ Culberson said.
Holder, his voice rising, contended that Culberson’s arguments ignored basic facts about the law and the fight against terrorists.
“Let’s deal with reality,’’ Holder said. “The reality is that we will be reading Miranda rights to the corpse of Osama bin Laden. He will never appear in an American courtroom.’’ (End of Associated Press piece.)
The letter:
Editor,
The non-Geneva-Conventions-compliant battlefield execution is certainly one way for the Obama Administration to avoid the messy application of the 'rule of law' at trial (Holder, GOP at odds over trials; March17). (End of letter.)
posted by Zack at 4:53 PM
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