Wednesday, November 25, 2009

A terrorist’s words a threat to U.S. democracy?


By PAT MURPHY
Express Staff Writer

Having not yet found a sound and sensible reason for not holding terrorist trials in New York City, the chorus that challenges the Obama administration's every move has turned to the usual strategy of the asinine.

The trials, they insist, would turn into circuses whereby the accused would launch bellicose tirades against the U.S. democracy and turn courtrooms into propaganda platforms with hateful speech that could harm the United States.

Some sort of double standard is being played out with that thinking, i.e., one man's speech is a refreshing reminder of the American ideal of open debate, whereas another man's speech—that of a Muslim terrorist—is certain to be so effectively poisonous that the U.S. democracy might collapse from the weight of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's vile rhetoric.

Rubbish.

First, anyone who has set foot in a U.S. courtroom—federal, state or local—knows that judges are not patsies for defendants' running off at the mouth at will. Defendants and their attorneys are bound to stick to the relevant, and if they don't, judges have some tough solutions. Contempt and heavy fines for lawyers, ejection from the courtroom for the defendants.

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Second, if in response to a question of why he helped plan 9/11, Mohammed begins to babble about American policies in the Middle East, Israel and the usual menu of evil-doers, this is standard fare in trials—defendants grasping at any far-fetched justification for horrific acts.

Reckless, poisonous, seditious, treasonous, corrupt, fraudulent speech is no rarity in trials or public discourse—and we're still standing.

Each of Osama bin Laden's scurrilous taped messages has been broadcast widely. Democracy continues.

That North Carolina Republican congresswoman with bizarre theories, Rep. Virginia Foxx, last week spewed another addled-headed notion—that President Obama's health care plan is a greater threat than terrorists. Her estimable Minnesota colleague, Rep. Michele Bachmann, still insists the U.S. Census could be used to imprison Americans in internment camps. Anyone hear the U.S. Capitol crumbling from that nonsense?

The nation survived President Nixon's Watergate caper.

Former Vice President Cheney has joined the hysteria. He's also afraid of the effect of loathsome terrorist denunciations. Of course: Cheney is a man who lives by fear—in an "undisclosed location," hides behind aides when leaking the name of a CIA agent and cowardly ducks military service by asking for five draft deferments rather than serve in Vietnam.

Silencing terrorists or trying them in secret would undermine the U.S. justice system's integrity. Letting them have their say in open court would condemn their bloody methods and crazed reasoning to worldwide scorn.




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