The ‘Deboogeymanification’ of Terror Suspects

[babylonsister]

http://washingtonindependent.com/68093/the-deboogeymanification-of-terror-suspects

The ‘Deboogeymanification’ of Terror Suspects
By Daphne Eviatar 11/17/09 12:22 PM


On his MSNBC morning show today, Dylan Ratigan asked me if I thought the decision to bring the suspected 9/11 co-conspirators to trial in a New York federal court was an attempt to “deboogeymanificate” those notorious terrorists we’ve heard so much about. After all, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his alleged al-Qaeda co-plotters have often been portrayed as larger-than-life supervillains by the Bush administration and the media.

I’m unsure if that was the intention of President Obama or Attorney General Eric Holder when they decided to try the five “worst of the worst” terror suspects in New York, but Ratigan was right (and very creative in his word choice) when he said seeing these guys in person could not only let the air out of some America’s inflated fears of Muslim boogeymen. It could also help shrink the suspects’ own enormous reputations among jihadists around the world.

The contrast of seeing these ordinary-looking men on trial in an orderly U.S. courtroom — where they’re accorded the right to a lawyer, the right to speak in their own defense and the right to call witnesses — could go a long way toward publicly revealing the absurdity of their cause, as well as the justice that a fair and functioning legal system can provide. Even if the trials don’t totally “deboogeymanificate” KSM and his allies, they would certainly make the United States look good. And after all the mistakes the U.S. government made over the last eight years in carrying out its “war on terrorism,” Obama and Holder have made an enormously important global public relations move in choosing not to hide these men away in a military commission somewhere, but to cut them down to human size by treating them as the twisted — but “ordinary” — mass murderers we believe them to be.

[DJ13]

1. Sun Nov-15-09 01:32 PM

A public trial ruins the terrorism fear card for the GOP to use in the future

Suddenly the terrorists are nothing but common criminals instead of a shadowy boogeyman to be exploited in future campaigns.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7021258&mesg_id=7021300
Democratic Underground - A public trial ruins the terrorism fear card for the GOP to use in the future - Democratic Underground

[babylonsister]

2. Yep. I got a million of them, but like this...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x496501

snip//

...What are you afraid of? What about a Mohammed trial here in the States makes you so angry? Do you think he shouldn’t get the same rights as you? Okay, that’s fair. But so what? The Gitmo tribunals were stalled, dead in the water, so aren’t you willing to sacrifice your feeling of indignation for the quicker conviction and sentence Mohammed’s civilian trial almost surely will bring? Aren’t you willing to set aside your rage at his treatment for the diplomatic and political benefits America will receive from giving the guy an open trial? Don’t you think that treating Mohammed and his colleagues like common criminals is precisely the right message to send to the world about terrorism and al-Qaeda? Don’t you think it hurts their cause to be considered murderers and not jihadist soldiers?

Are you distrustful of the federal judiciary? Why, because you believe the dangerous lie about how judges are ruining the rest of the government’s war on terrorism? Have you taken the time to look at the track record that federal prosecutors have in successfully trying terror suspects in New York? Can you name a single case where the feds lost a major terror trial since September 11, 2001? Can you name one from before the terrible events that day? Is Tim McVeigh walking around Buffalo today? Is Terry Nichols walking around Kansas? Is Ramzi Youssef back in Brooklyn or Zacarias Moussaoui out on an airfield trying to fly planes in Minnesota? Have you heard from Jose Padilla or Richard Reid lately?

Are you really worried that Mohammed will go free? Why, because O.J. Simpson went free in 1995? Do you really think that a judge and jury are going to let this guy walk? The United States in United States v. Mohammed has the biggest home-court advantage in American legal history. Not only will the government have enough evidence to convict him, it’s likely that Mohammed will gleefully help convict himself. Did you pay attention to the Moussaoui trial when he proudly declared his al-Qaeda allegiance in a Virginia courtroom? Have you paid attention to Mohammed’s incriminating statements made to tribunal officers in Cuba? What about all of that makes you think he’s suddenly going to turn into a John Demjanjuk and deny, deny, deny it all?

Are you worried that Mohammed will try to turn his trial into political theatre? So what? The world already has heard what he and his al-Qaeda pals think of America. The world already has seen the photos from Abu Ghraib. The world knows about waterboarding. It’s old news. Mohammed is just a man, and soon he’ll be a defendant, and then he’ll be a ranting, shrieking crazy person in court, then he’ll be convicted and then he’ll be sentenced. Don’t be angry about it now that is going to occur. Don’t fear it. Welcome it. And at the same time embrace your own role, and your own responsibility, for ensuring that it had to happen this way, at this time, and in this place.