February 12, 2008
Victims' Relatives Welcome Charges Against 9/11 Plotters
The announcement that six detainees in Guantanamo would be charged and tried for the September 11, 2001 attacks was welcomed by a number of parties, including the families of people who died on September 11. However, some would like to see a trial in New York and not in Gitmo.
The Sun found some different reactions. Jim Riches a fire chief whose son died in the World Trade Center, said, "[T]hese people should be brought to New York where the crime was committed and where the families could go and see the trial and see them face justice." Congressman Anthony Weiner said, "if holding this trial in the city eases the heartache of a single person, then we should do it."
However, another parent of a firefighter who died in the attacks, Sally Regenhard, believes the Pentagon's pursuit of death sentences is important: "If these people are indeed guilty as charged, I'd like them to receive the same death sentence that our children received." But a lawyer for the Human Rights Watch, Jennifer Daksal, raised concerns over abuse during interrogations and the trials' "unfairness" to the NY Times, "The American public doesn’t need to put them on trial at this point to prove we got the bad guys."
An editorial in the Sun suggests that the "lack of a death penalty in the state" is what prompted the Defense Department to hold the trial in Guatanamo Bay. The Daily News' editorial thinks "death is too good," ending the column with "Die, you bastards."
Photograph of Guatanamo Bay prison by Brennan Linsley/AP
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Can we stop the practice of referring to 9/11 victim relatives as a single entity? Of course they're going to have differences of opinion.
The Daily News editorial is just weird. It reads like they were trying too hard.
What an awful editorial. The writer acts like an innocent nation was attacked, and neglects to mention the motive behind the attacks. Instead, the loss of innocent life is all the writer can see, and he/she is hunting for more blood to be spilled.
Wake up, Daily News. We had this coming for a variety of reasons. It was a tragedy, but everyone on this site fires the witty "Darwin Award" line when people aren't clever enough on how to avoid death. This isn't as cut and dry as, "don't jump between cars on a subway," but it should be fairly obvious that we shouldn't overthrow elected officials over bananas or oil. We shouldn't invade nations, and set up camp for 50+ years, then act surprised when people want to revolt in the form of terrorism. Our flawed judgment of the world earns us the biggest, grandest Darwin Award of them all.
Wouldn't it be a federal trial? New York state's lack of a death penalty would be irrelevant.
It would be a Federal trial at the Federal Courthouse in New York City which falls under the United States, not New York State.
Bottomless Chips, or Mr. Chips if you'll allow, your moral relativism is refreshing. I had forgotten how out of touch college students, and those that have never evolved after college, are. The whole complex world is summed up in your snarky quip. You are smarter than everyone else in this country becasue you see the truth behind the lie of [insert rabble].
Don't you ever grow up peter pan. You're adorably dense just the way you are.
Stick them in 6x6x6 cells, equipped with a sink, toilet and cot. No windows, just a slot in the door for meals. No exercise priveledges, no tv, no radio, no books, no writing material, no computers. No visits. No phone calls. No one talks to them. If they go on a hunger strike, tie them down, and force feed them. If they feel sick, slide them an aspirin.
Let them live to be 100, and have nothing to think about, but why they are in that cell, cut off from any human contact. Let them have a dying life, a living death for the rest of thier hopefully long lives.
When they die, napalm the cell, and inform the world.
Well done Karen.
As for the Bottomless Pit. He's a rag head sympathizer. Cut him up and feed him to the others pieces of crap. Crap in, crap out.
they'll end up here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADX_Florence
The point isn't that an ''innocent'' nation was attacked. It's that the purpose was to kill civilians and not to attack a base or a ship or a military target that could defend itself. There are reasons why 9/11 happened, Bottomless Chips. None of them mean ''we had this coming''.
The evident bloodlust of the editorial writers is counterproductive. I do not hold same opinion the Daily News expresses in their commentary. I'm not saying I have sympathy for KSM or his cohorts. I have none.
But, I have concerns when such an aggressive tone is expressed in such a public way.
It is easy for me to say that. I didn't lose a friend or a loved one. I didn't have to bury a fellow cop or fireman with whom I served with in New York. I can't judge someone in that position who wants vengeance or punishment. I wouldn't be surprised if I felt that way, too.
I don't want us to become them. It might be instructive if our friends and enemies saw terrorists having a fair hearing that's totally open and honest. I hate to admit it but I'm unsure if the Bush administration will provide it.
I wonder what we learned.