Last Friday, A.G. Eric Holder announced that some of the remaining 9/11 terrorists will be tried in the civilian courts of New York, instead of by military tribunal. There's really nothing remarkable or controversial about this move; there are numerous precedents of the United States justice system prosecuting terrorists, both foreign and domestic. And most mainstream pundits and politicians, including conservative New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, believe it's fitting that justice will be administered where the crime occurred.
But foreign policy hawks never miss a chance to unload a wad of pearl clutching, buzz word sputtering, fear mongering nonsense. Here's a summation of what Rudy Giuliani thinks:
Bill O'Reilly and Karl Rove got a little more in depth, and amongst their false outrage and paranoid fantasies you can pick out what they really fear; accountability for the Bush administration:
It's at about the 4:20 mark where O'Reilly first suggests that this is a political move to embarrass the Bush administration, which sends Rove off on a wild diatribe against Obama, Holder, and "a bunch of left-wing lawyers who do not love America".
Rove has every reason to be afraid. He was party to an illegal torture regime and an effort to cover that regime up. The Bush administration never tried any of these guys because, as we know now, they had been tortured and that fact would be detailed in any trial, military or otherwise. It's not surprising that there are a lot of lawyers out there who care enough about the law to hold them accountable.
The whole issue is silly. It's unlikely Rove or O'Reilly or Giuliani are actually convinced that any of their dire predictions have the slightest chance of coming true. There's simply a lot opportunistic fear mongering and political ass covering going on here. One has to wonder; do they really have so little faith in the American justice system?
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