Friday, November 13, 2009

RUDY GIULIANI

Rudy Weighs In

A statement from former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani concerning today's news that Guantanamo Bay detainees will face trial here in New York:

Returning some of the Guantanamo detainees to New York City for trial, specifically Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, has now brought us full circle — we have regressed to a pre-9/11 mentality with respect to Islamic extremist terrorism. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed should be treated like the war criminal he is and tried in a military court. He is not just another murderer, or even a mass murderer. He murdered as part of a declared war against us — America.

This is the same mistake we made with the 1993 terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center. We treated them like domestic criminals, when in fact they were terrorists. In the dangerous world we live in today, a nation unable to identify and properly define its enemies is a nation in danger.

I would only add that there is one scenario in which the choice to bring Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other al-Qaeda to New York City will seem like a wise decision: A conviction, delivered after an orderly, fair trial, with no interruptions.

There are many scenarios where this choice will look reckless and stupid: an acquittal (remember, one holdout kept Moussaoui from the death penalty), a mistrial, an O. J. Simpson–like circus, KSM and the others using the trial as a soapbox to denounce America every moment, and worst of all, a terror attack launched to influence it. (Could jurors be a target?)

The choice has been made; now all of us get to live with the consequences.

11/13 03:58 PMShare