Over at Hot Air, Allahpundit puts up a video of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton being interviewed by David Gregory on NBC’s Meet the Press yesterday morning and notes that she appears to at least give lip service to agreeing with the Obama Administration’s decision to try admitted 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammad and his cohorts in civilian federal court--in a venue located within walking distance of the site where the World Trade Center towers once stood. Not really a surprise.
But Secretary Clinton said something which I think needs to be highlighted. Here’s a cut of the transcript from Real Clear Politics:
SEC'Y CLINTON: … I'm not going to second guess any decision that the attorney general made. But I think it's important that Mayor Bloomberg, that our law enforcement officials in New York, you know, all believe that New York City not only can handle this, but that it is appropriate to go forward in the very area where these people launched this horrific attack against us. You know, I was a senator from New York, and I, I want to see them brought to justice. The most important thing for me is that, you know, they pay the ultimate price for what they did to us on 9/11. And if the attorney general and, and veteran prosecutors think this is the best way to achieve that outcome, then I think that, you know, they should be given the, the right to move forward as they see appropriate.
The outcome is the most important thing to Secretary Clinton and to the administration for which she works. The appropriateness of jurisdiction and venue doesn’t matter. The rules of evidence don’t matter. Nothing matters except for the outcome and the outcome which Secretary Clinton claims to want is death for KSM and his boys. So if it isn’t important that the proper process be followed when determining the fate of these…these…these human beings…if the process is secondary to the outcome then why are they bothering?
Because I think we all know of an even better way that the “ultimate price” outcome can be achieved.
However, isn’t proper and due process supposed to be of the utmost of importance when an individual find him/her fate under review by a given court? Aren’t the rules, rather than the outcome, supposed to be at the crown jewels of the legal edifice of this country?
If these Jihadis get the death penalty in this court, our problems are not over but are just beginning and not just those which will be caused by their brethren.
Once the process is thrown out, once the rules are thrown out, once the outcome becomes the most important factor in making legal decisions, all bets are off. Americans will be just as subject to outcome-based jurisprudence (again) as it appears that KSM will be. That’s one of the most important reasons that President Obama and Attorney General Holder want GITMO closed and the prisoners thereof subject to US law and granted the rights which all those on American soil enjoy.
Another thing: Secretary Clinton, et al. are also giving lip service to wanting a guilty verdict. One word: Miranda. That's proof in a nutshell that they have other endgames in mind.
