Terrorist Trials
President Obama and his administration have yet another problem, another of their own creation, and that is where to try the 9/11 terrorists. Mr. Obama's decision to bring the trials - and the accused terrorists - to American soil was not thought through. The security problems and the associated costs were obvious to the mayors of cities where the Justice Department wants to hold the trials. The problems were obvious to New York City residents and they are now obvious to the citizens of Pittsburgh.
The Administration chose to make these trials a political statement instead of responsibly weighing the consequences to the affected cities. Mr. Obama had a safe and secure location in Gitmo for these trials. The military courts are the place for them, not civilian courts. These terrorists are combatants waging war against us. I'll worry about their civil rights, personal comforts, and diets when the rest of the world decries the be-headings of Americans on TV and the senseless attacks on civilians by Jihadists.
The international community will always target American policies as long as they see the possiblity of economic gain through American weakness. Summary executions of American citizens on live internet broadcasts bring substantially less international outcry than an embarrassing picture of a suspected terrorist in American custody. None of this is particularly surprising. What is surprising is that the President seems to share many of these opinions and in simple, knee-jerk fashion, bowed to international opinion and promised to close Gitmo, without once pausing to consider the risks that might come as a result to "host" communities - nor the costs.
Today, it is becoming quite apparent that Pittsburgh will be dealing for years with the law suits and costs resulting from the decision to host the G20 meeting here - imagine how much more expensive it will be to the people of this region to hold the months-long circus a terrorist's trial is bound to be. And imagine how much more dangerous it will be when their "friends" come to town!
I believe it is well past time for Congressman Doyle to come out against this policy, and for the President himself to admit that the decision was rushed and badly thought out - even if that means the Europeans will ask for their Nobel Prize back.
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