When Agendas Run Amock

Imagine you are forced into the witness protection program in order to keep your family safe and alive.

You have to change your name. All of your family have to change their names. Literally overnight you are packed off to a new town...you never again can call or see your parents, your siblings, your friends...they're not even allowed to know what happened to you. You can't even receive news of them.

When your parents get old and need your help...you can't be there. You won't even know about it. The slightest security leak, or slip-up, can get you killed. Your entire world is gone and you can never get it back.

That's what it can be like if you serve as a juror on a trial against a well-connected crime figure. The only way you can be an impartial juror, is to have you and your family's safety guaranteed beyond doubt. Otherwise...someone out of the twelve members of that jury will refuse to convict out of fear they or a family member will pay the ultimate price.

Now imagine you are on the jury trying five terrorists who were involved in the 9/11 attacks. If they are convicted, an entire international terrorist organization will dedicate itself to killing you, your immediate family, your extended family, your friends and co-workers, and anyone they might consider whose death would give you pain.

Remember they have millions of fanatical members...people willing to strap on suicide vests and jump on school busses. People willing to fly airplanes into buildings. Can you imagine any way your entire sphere of family and friends can be protected...not just for a few months, or years, but for the next few decades. Because these fanatics will target all of them for as long as it takes. They will never quit.

Now let's be brutally realistic! The defense attornies will "leak" your name and your address to the press within a matter of days. They will do so knowing full well it would destroy any chance the prosecution has of getting a conviction. Within hours of that leak reporters and bloggers will spill that information across the world wide net. You're sitting on the jury...you know what will happen if the terrorists are convicted...what do you do?

Be real honest! Do you truly believe that all twelve of you, no matter how strong the evidence, will convict? Won't there be at least one hold out? Someone so terrified they simply will not budge...and won't the remainder eventually see that the only way out of a hung jury is to go with a not-guilty verdict?

The same issue was raised half a century ago when Nazi war criminals were put on trial. That is why military tribunals were used to dispense justice...and why members of our government have been trying to start the same process for the 9/11 terrorists being held today by the US Military. For years now they have been blocked from moving forward by organizations like the ACLU.

So why did the Obama administration kowtow to such organizations and go an entirely different route? This last week they announced these terrorists would be tried as civilians...and given the full protection of the US Constitution as if they were US citizens. It means they would have to be convicted by a jury of twelve Americans.

There is obviously zero logic at work here...so we have to ask "what are the reasons for this rather radical turn of events and this decision?"

There are a number of possible answers; all of which may be a part of why this move was made. Let's get started by painting the scene:

Everyone understands that the Obama crew has a deeply rooted hatred for Bush and his administration, the military and military people, the CIA, all and any wars, and the entire concept of the war against terror. These terrorists were captured on the battlefield...not properly "arrested"...and were sent to Gitmo instead of a civilian prison where they could have been protected from "abuse" and "torture."

There is nothing more this group of malcontents wants more than to sling mud at all the institutions and persons they hate so deeply. A public trial of these "victims of torture" whereby the terrorists can have a forum to lie and make claims against the US, the military, and US citizens is just too much an opportunity for these whiners in the White House to pass up.

Worse; there is a very real possibility of acquittal on a technicality...such as their not being read their rights when captured on the battlefield...or a hung jury. The failure to find them guilty will be tossed back at the Bush administration...it's all their fault...they should have morandized the prisoners in Afghanistan...they should have built a forensic case on site...created a chain of evidence...etcetera ad nauseam. US citizens will be outraged...and a certain number will put the blame on Bush and his people rather than where it rests.

It's almost as if this was the goal of the ACLU and friends from the first...and perhaps it was. Unfortunately for them, we the people are not quite the fools they take us to be. They spend so much time with the easily manipulated that they fail to see the groundswell of anger already building among normal folks.

Polls show the vast majority of Americans want these war criminals tried in a military tribunal. If Obama's people turn this into a circus, which they will without a doubt, and fail to get convictions and harsh sentences (such as death), this will turn on them...and will probably turn hard.

We may be beginning to see how vengeful idealogues can out-maneuver themselves...I believe they are finally doing so on the health care take-over issue...and how they may just be their own worst enemies. Let's watch what happens... and be ready to remind our friends and acquaintances that "we told you so."

The Professor