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9/11 Suspects Should Face Civilian Court, UN Envoys Say
United Nations human rights investigators called on the Obama administration on Tuesday to prosecute the accused September 11 masterminds in a civilian court, declaring that U.S. military tribunals would not be fair.
Manfred Nowak, U.N. special rapporteur on torture, said it was possible some evidence extracted by torture would not be admissible in a civilian criminal court but it would surprising after so many years if U.S. prosecutors did not have evidence that was not obtained by mistreatment. (AFP/Getty Images/File/John Moore) The White House is reviewing options to bring the 9/11 detainees to justice and U.S. officials said on Friday senior administration officials may recommend that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspects in the 2001 attacks face a military trial.
"I take the view that the Military Commissions Act is fundamentally flawed. It is very far from international fair trial standards and probably cannot be fixed," said Martin Scheinin, U.N. special rapporteur on the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism.
Scheinin and other U.N. rapporteurs are independent investigators reporting to the U.N. Human Rights Council, whose 47 members include the United States.
The Finnish international law professor, who has visited the U.S.-run detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, also said it would be a mistake for the Obama administration to try to reform the Military Commissions Act, proclaimed under President George W. Bush, to try to provide for fair trials.
"To me the only safe option is to go to regular federal criminal courts which also have a much better track record in dealing with terrorism cases than the very unfortunate military commissions," Scheinin told a news briefing in Geneva.
Military trials allow for evidence obtained by cruel or degrading treatment of detainees and have a "backdoor" for using confessions obtained under torture by allowing hearsay, he said. This was in breach of U.S. obligations under international law.
Attorney General Eric Holder had originally planned to have the five men tried in a civilian court in New York City, where most of the nearly 3,000 victims of the attacks were killed.
But opposition from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and lawmakers in Washington prompted a change in plans.
The U.S. administration for weeks has publicly acknowledged it was considering a shift as a result of concerns over the cost and disruption of a civilian trial in New York and the requirement that the suspects receive full legal rights.
Manfred Nowak, U.N. special rapporteur on torture, said that the detainees should face civilian trials for heinous crimes.
"We are dealing with a very, very serious crime that should be dealt with by the ordinary criminal courts according to ordinary criminal legislation that is applicable to these types of crimes, which I consider crimes against humanity," he said.
Criminal courts in Germany, Italy and the United States have tried terrorism cases in the context of the ordinary criminal justice system, according to the Austrian law professor.
"The same should apply to all the persons accused of having been the masterminds, of having participated in the 9/11 attacks," Nowak said.
He said it was possible some evidence extracted by torture would not be admissible in a civilian criminal court but it would surprising after so many years if U.S. prosecutors did not have evidence that was not obtained by mistreatment.
(Editing by Jonathan Lynn)
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15 Comments so far
Show AllI doubt that the Nobel Committee has figured this out yet, but all the lip-service to conviviality and compromise notwithstanding, Obama and his team firmly and unequivocally assert that the US don't let no stinkin' "UN Envoys" tell it what to do!
In fact, given Team Obama's inherent exceptionalist, triumphalist belligerence, and its priority of attempting to placate and mollify wingnuts and reactionary yahoos-- Elected Misrepresentatives, corporate-media demagogues, and the fearful and ignorant masses alike-- it's more inclined to do the OPPOSITE of whatever the UN Envoys recommend.
I mean, really! A "special rapporteur"? What the hell kind of la-de-da pissant critter is THAT? Sounds like a fancy, froggy word for a cheese-eating surrender monkey! What's next-- recommending that Gitmo and Baghram be equipped with freaking bidets? (Not that I know what those actually ARE, y'know-- just sayin'.)
As with Judge Goldstone's inconveniently truthful report, US political leaders will fling down and dance upon this sober and responsible recommendation.
You have a gift, my friend. Keep 'em comin'!!
The United States has been without civilian control of ‘their’ government for some time. The Constitution was traded off for the Patriot Act, act. The Military Running-the-Show on the Trials best demonstrates the main collapse in the country was not pre-engineered buildings falling down on queue, but the end of any attempt to represent this nation as a democracy.
Public trials can be to revealing, and there is no legal chain of evidence anyway.
Will the trials include the suspects Chaney and Bush???
My first thought when things changed from civil court to the military; "oh,my! the world will find out what happened to this man and he might reveal info that the CIA, the Pentagon and others may be reluctant to have aired for the world to see and hear". I had wished that Saddam H. would have had his day in one of our courts as well. If we really truly believe, one is innocent until proven guilty; it should apply to all. Hmmm! Military coup, has it happened already? Does that come before or after Wall St., Banks, Global Corporations, Insurance Companies and Big Oil have taken our last pennies?
And, while we're at it, how about an independent investigation of the events of 9ll...something worthy of, say, your typical Columbo, or CSI, or, even Perry Mason, episode.
So many dots...so few lines---
I truly want to hear the answer to the question to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed how and when he and his "group" managed to plant the now-scientifically-verified-from-the-dust-of-the-Twin-Towers highly explosive NANO-THERMITE material in the basements of the Twin Towers and also under the 23rd and 25th floors of Tower 1, where all kinds of relevant, but revealing, financial records were kept, and also in different areas of Building 7, with its IRS and C.I.A. records, which building was not hit by any airplane.
Since information about the verified nano-thermite material found in the dust of the Twin Towers appeared in The Washington Times and a California newspaper not too long ago, it seems that the Truth is perhaps filtering out. It's getting more difficult to keep the lid on things when Architects and Engineers for 9-11 Truth has gone from a membership of 100 to 1,000 or more reputable professionals who evidently are on the same page. That organization has filed a legal paper requesting a hearing for NIST officials to explain how they arrived at their findings. [And their findings are very questionable even to fairly well-informed lay people.]
A couple of weeks ago, Cheney was hospitalized because of chest pains. I don't doubt it.
And this sudden desire by Obama for a change of venue from a Federal Civilian Court to a much less probing Military Tribunal, which does accept confessions gained from torture and also accepts hearsay evidence, likely has a great deal to do with the threat of TRUTH coming into the light.
If you haven't, please read all the evidence offered by www.911truth.org and its "truther"-affiliated organizations, such as Firefighters for 9-11 Truth, Pilots for 9-11 Truth and many others, and the growingest group of all, Architects and Engineers for 9-11 Truth.
I think if I were water-boarded 123 times, I likely would be dead after 10 times, but Khalid Sheikh Mohammed held out, but finally admitted, with some watery pressure in his lungs to do so, that he was the "Mastermind" of 9-11. Right.
If KSM still is coherent, which I hope he is, a good lawyer, if he isn't bought and paid-for by our government (but nowadays you never know), he should be acquitted given all the evidence that 9-11 was a partnered INSIDE JOB, unless, of course, the Judge is not bought and paid-for too.
That sure would blow the lid off the apathy of my countrymen and women, and likely bring down the government as it is now.
Any bets whether Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his alleged cohorts remain alive to stand trial if Eric Holder, as impartial Attorney General holds out for his decision, and the trial does take place in a Federal Criminal Court with an honest team of attorneys for the defendants and an honest judge, all of whom can't be bought? It is illegal for Obama to pressure his Attorney General, but Bush-Cheney & Company did the same to Attorney General Gonzales, but obviously he was corrupt from the get-go. How 'bout it Attorney General Eric Holder. Are you going to follow your late mother's advice to do the Right? You have said Truth and the Right and doing the Right thing were what she insisted on when you were growing up. We'll find out who you are very soon.
A moment in history being decided right now. The Truth could redirect the course of it, for sure.
/cm
It would be very handy for these guys if KSM took an overdose of Tylenol about now--like Dr. Ivins, the supposed anthrax killer. Absent access to Tylenol, he may develop heart problems. His downward spiral will be taken as evidence of a guilty conscience.
Has the new and improved Military Commissions Act 2009 passed legal challenge at the Supreme Court level yet? I recall the 2006 version failed that test.
Since Timothoy Mcveigh ( a home grown terrorist) acted on American soil, then those terrorist who also acted on American soil should be tried in the same type of court.
This means in a U.S Court, and not in a military court. McVeigh admitted his crime and was executed. I think that the American public and the American judicial system, plus the relatives of the people killed by the 9/11 masterminds should all have "Their day" in court."
A military court is a Star Chamber," and we really don't need any more of those in this country.
"This was in breach of U.S. obligations under international law."
So?
The US breaches its own laws with impunity and immunity.
Why should international law be treated any differently?
Obama was picked to be another patsy/puppet like Reagan, Nixon, but the Bush controlled group have the strong hold. Prestcott Bush tried for the Fascist coup in 1933, set up the CIA, his son George Sr. was the head of, and then the war happy Robert Gates, [of the Bush jr./Obama regimes]-- took over. Saddam was once on the CIA payroll. Bin laden's family are good friends of the Bush family, was on visit when 9/11 occured, and their plane was the only one allowed to fly out that day. bin Laden refused Bush the oil pipe line, in which, as we all know, you never refuse a Bush, or else. I do not believe the ones blamed on the 9/11 attack are guilty. 9/11 was our Reichstag.
We need the trial of people accused of involvement with the collapse of the World Trade Towers to be tried in open court. The military tribunals will say they are quilty and that means the truth of the events of that day will still be hidden.
In open court questions about the facts can be asked. There is considerable evidence that indicates the whole event was a 'false flag' activity to get our nation into war. We need to know if the buildings may have been brought down by controlled demolition. And if so, who did it.
continuing this charade of a saga called "Gitmo" is abhorrent...
the arbitrary destruction of lives to cover your own crime...
what else can be said, but free them...let them go to whatever life they can salvage...help them to do so...
of course, they can't, and won't...
we could, on Global Start Date: September 22, 2012...