This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/4162
November 23, 2009
November 23, 2009 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Interviewed this morning on the Scott Hennen,"Common Sense" radio show [see http://www.scotthennen.com/# for archived program] former Vice President Dick Cheney charged that the Obama administration has forgotten the lessons of 9/11 and "reverted back to the old mindset, that a terrorist attack is a law enforcement problem."
Cheney's most serious allegation however was to charge that team Obama's decision to try 9/11 master mind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a New York civilian trial, was merely an attempt to create, "a show trial."
Many commentators have observed that the only possible reason the administration might have to reject Mohammed's desire to plead guilty in a military tribunal, was to put the Bush administration on trial under the guise of seeking civilian justice for the self-admitted terrorist KSM.
What follows is a partial, rush transcript of the relevant portion of VP Cheney's comments:
Scott Hennen: "The Obama administration has recently decided that for the first time in our nation's history an enemy combatant, caught on the battlefield, will be tried in civilian court. I want your reaction to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other top al-Qaeda terrorists being given these rights in a New York City trial."
Dick Cheney: I think it's a big mistake the fact…before 9/11 we treated terrorist attacks as criminal offenses as law enforcement problems so somebody tries to blow up the world trade center in New York in '93, we arrest them put them on trial put them in prison, case closed.
What 9/11 did was change the way we look at those events because all of a sudden we had 16 acres of downtown Manhattan destroyed, we had people jumping out of 80th floor windows to avoid being burned to death. We had the Pentagon badly struck we would have had probably the White House hit if it had not been for the brave passengers on flight 93 who took it down.
We had 3,000 Americans dead on that day, that is not a law enforcement problem, that's an act of war.
And you need to treat it as an act of war and once you make that decision, that it is an act of war, you marshal all of your national assets your national means to go after the bad guys to go after those who supplied them with weapons and training go after those who provide sanctuary and safe harbor. It's to pursue a much more aggressive strategy which we did and which paid off in safety for the homeland for eight years...Now when I seem them bringing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to New York city to stand trial in a civilian court it says to me they have forgotten those lessons and reverted back to the old mindset, that a terrorist attack is a law enforcement problem...I can't for the life of me figure out what Holder's intent here is in terms of having Khalid Sheikh Mohammed tried in a civilian trial other than some kind of show trial and they'll simply use it as a platform to argue their case. They don't have a defense to speak of it will be a place for them to stand up and spread the terrible ideology that they adhere to..."
http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=cheney11.23.09%2Ehtm
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/4162