Senator Kent Conrad: If You’re Against The Civilian Terror Trial You Can Leave America
Bold words from the Senator who probably wouldn’t be speaking so boldly if he were up for re-election next year given the sentiments of his constituents.
Apparently concerns about due process rights and evidentiary procedures aren’t serious in the Senator’s opinion:
(CNSNews.com) – Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) told CNSNews.com that civilian courts are well-suited to prosecute al Qaeda terrorists and that “if people don’t believe in our system, they ought to go somewhere else.”
Conrad also dismissed a question about the rights of terrorists captured on foreign battlefields and the rules of evidence in terms of a civilian court trial as not serious. …
Conrad said: “You’re not being serious about these questions, are you?”
CNSNews.com: “[Yes], in a civilian trial. If I was on trial or you were on trial, that would have to be [done].”
Conrad responded, “We have tried terrorists in our courts and done so very successfully in the past and that is our system. So if people don’t believe in our system, maybe they ought to go somewhere else.”
The problem with Conrad’s statement is that the terrorists we’ve tried in our courts before (McVeigh, for instance, and the 1993 World Trade Center bombers) were captured domestically by domestic law enforcement officers.
Terrorists like Khalid Sheik Mohammed weren’t captured by domestic law enforcement agencies and they weren’t captured domestically. KSM, for instance, was captured by Pakistani forces and handed over to the US military for detention at Guantanamo Bay. Other terrorists of his ilk were captured by our military.
Typical procedures put in place to comply with civilian judicial standards here in America were not followed because these were not civilian criminals but rather enemy combatants.
Senator Conrad thinking this is all no big deal illustrates that he’s either got an utter lack of respect for our rule of law or is utterly naive as to how this law actually works.
