--Eric Bibb, "World War Blues"
Osama bin Laden's son-in-law, Suleiman Abu-Ghaid is a prisoner in New York City in federal custody, charged with conspiring to kill Americans.
Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader from Kentucky, is losing his water over this. From the Guardian (UK):
Mitch McConnell, accused Barack Obama of putting his desire to close Guantánamo ahead of the country's security needs. The decision denied the intelligence community the opportunity to interrogate Suleiman Abu Ghaith to obtain information about possible harm to the US, McConnell claimed.
So McConnell is pissed because we're not going to waterboard this guy. Also, there's the inconvenient fact that Gitmo is a crime, and Senator KFC knows it. The US Constitution doesn't allow imprisonment without charges of anyone but enemy soldiers, in the type of wars people used to fight back in the day.
Throwing people into Guantanamo without charges, without a hint of due process was illegal when Bush did it, and is just is illegal under Obama.
The abu-Ghaid trial will be a breath of fresh air. The defendant will be publicly tried, and we'll find out what, if anything, the feds have on him. He'll have competent representation, and will try to defend himself. I wonder if they'll let him cop a plea.
This is the way we should have done this anti-terrorism fight from the beginning, but Dick Cheney wanted to punch people and prove to them he could do absolutely anything to them he wanted.
Speaking of Guantanamo, didn't Obama promise to shut that place down?
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