Do you feel safe?

Do you remember how outraged you were when you learned that 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other high-level Al Qaeda terrorists were to be transferred out of military custody and brought to trial in a civilian court in downtown New York City, practically in the shadow of the World Trade Center rubble?

Do you remember how angry you became when you heard that Nigerian bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab would also forgo a military tribunal in favor of a civilian jury trial with the same Constitutional rights as an American citizen?

The handling of these and other threats to our national security by the Obama Administration and his immediate response to the backlash that followed demonstrate that Obama and those he has tasked with keeping us safe are so blinded by ideology and politics that they have no comprehension of the damage they are doing to our national security. They are so intent on giving our enemies the edge, they can’t keep us safe.

When Attorney General Eric Holder announced that KSM and his cohorts would be tried in Manhattan, the response from critics was harsh and immediate. Holder addressed skeptics by essentially guaranteeing, not just a conviction, but a death sentence. These and other irresponsible statements regarding the outcome of the trial have been repeated often by Obama’s Minister of Propaganda, Robert Gibbs and even Obama himself. If I were KSM’s lawyer, my first act on appeal would be to have the verdict tossed on the grounds that Holder’s, Gibbs’ and Obama’s prejudging of the both the verdict and sentence irreparably damaged the rights they were so intent on granting these scumbags in the first place and tainted any and all potential jurors. They may very well have sabotaged the trial.

Broadcasting their intent to seek the death penalty and their confidence that it will be carried out was a purely political statement meant to pacify critics, but is exactly the wrong thing to do in this case. KSM is seeking martyrdom.
He should be sentenced to one consecutive life sentence for each life taken on 9/11 and thrown to rot into a deep dark hole to linger until he goes insane or to Hell, whichever comes first.

In the case of Abdulmutallab’s Christmas Day attack, Barack Obama assured us that despite being granted Constitutional rights, the subject was providing “valuable” information. But, once apprehended, Abdulmutallab was reportedly only interrogated for a mere 50 minutes before being read his Miranda rights and then clamming up. As a result of those reports, the Obama Administration summoned the press corps and revealed that Abdulmutallab’s parents were brought in from Nigeria to convince him to talk and he sang like a canary, giving up locations, contacts and other vital information.

Using a plea bargain or a concerned family member to extract information may work with the disaffected, 20-something son of a wealthy Nigerian banker, but not to a hardcore member of al Qaeda who wants to die for his cause.

Plea bargains take months, eliminating our ability to obtain fresh, actionable intelligence to disrupt pending attacks, putting us all in greater danger unnecessarily. They also violate the long-standing tradition of America not negotiating with terrorists. A plea bargain with a terrorist is a deal with the Devil.

The revelations by the Obama Administration detailing the information they obtained from Abdulmutallab were either bellicose lies made to assuage angry critics, or truthful assertions to justify his weak and wildly unpopular position. Either way, they are extremely dangerous. Anyone and everyone who may be connected to Abdulmutallab has now scattered like cockroaches in sunlight.

Finally, we’ve spent billions of dollars and worked an entire decade to beef up our defenses against terrorists. But, did you know that those charged with our security don’t even begin screening inbound passenger manifests from overseas flights until after the plane carrying the potential terrorist is in the air? Did you also know that intelligence officials in the Obama Administration admitted to allowing known or supsected terrorists to enter the US so we could conduct surveillance? The Obama Administration is begging for attack. Terrorists must be killed or captured and interrogated, not allowed to enter for any reason.

I warned a long time ago that Mr. Obama was an amateur when it came to national security and that his world view would place us in greater danger. There is absolutely no reason, other than pure, partisan politics to be broadcasting our methods, or worse, what they’ve produced. Administration intelligence officials have voiced unanimous agreement that a terrorist attack is “certain” in the next few months. If true, it is quite possible that all of the Obama Administration’s jawboning may have actually shortened that time line; lit the fuse. If the terrorists feel their window of opportunity is closing, they may feel compelled to act. If this administration doesn’t immediately shut its collective mouth Americans are going to die. And I’ll be the first to point out their blood-stained hands.

Jayme Evans
http://warofwits.org/