A Plea Deal For Terrorists?

More than six years after it began imprisoning terrorist suspects at Guantánamo Bay,
the Bush administration finally hopes to present evidence against one
of them at trial next month and prove that its much-criticized
military-commissions system can be fair. Yemeni national Salim Ahmed Hamdan,
one of Gitmo's highest-profile detainees, faces charges of conspiracy
and giving material support to terrorists while serving as Osama bin
Laden's driver. But the commission's former lead prosecutor, Air Force
Col. Morris Davis,
now says the government weighed a plea agreement with Hamdan last year
that would have halted a trial and presumably set a date for his
release.

Davis told NEWSWEEK that Gen. Thomas
Hartmann, the Pentagon's top legal adviser in the commission's office,
made plans to fly to Gitmo last August with Neal Katyal, one of
Hamdan's civilian defense attorneys, to hammer out a plea deal. Davis
said the trip was postponed when he filed a complaint against Hartmann
for interfering in prosecutorial decision making. Davis's complaint
touched off a Pentagon investigation, and he resigned his post in
October. "I think the turmoil just collapsed the whole plea bargain,"
Davis said. Hartmann refused to discuss the episode and Katyal said he
"never comments publicly on the existence of plea negotiations."

Davis
does not know what Hartmann was ready to offer Hamdan, who has
repeatedly, and successfully, challenged aspects of the
military-commissions process in court. The prosecution depicts Hamdan
as a Qaeda terrorist—not just a $200-a-month chauffeur—whose alleged
crimes merit life in prison.

If Hamdan is indeed a terrorist, then he deserves either life in prison or death. There's even rumor that he confessed to knowing about the 9/11 attacks before they happened and spoke with Bin Laden a few days before and they discussed what they expected to happen.

That in of itself is worth a life term at the least. When I hear them talk of his release, it makes my blood boil over in rage. 9/11 victims were burned, crushed, jumped, or suffocated to death. There are people who's remains have not been found to this day. So when you talk about releasing someone who at the very least knew in advance that the attacks were going to happen is going to be release at some point in the future, I think we have the right to be outraged.

Michael Fortier knew about the Oklahoma City Bombing before it happened and did nothing about it. He got 12 years as part of a plea deal and testified against others involved. Unless this guy can tell us EXACTLY where Bin Laden is, I say he gets no such deal.

We deserve justice for these people who were murdered that day. If we don't get it, I wouldn't be surprised if one day he's released and there's a victim's family member across the way on the rooftop with a rifle. Not encouraging it, just saying......:)

Travis
travis@rightwinglunatic.com