“Fort Dix Five” Trial Still Deliberating
In May of last year, five men were charged with plotting to kill Soldiers and Civilians based at Fort Dix Army base in New Jersey. They are charged with conspiracy to murder military personnel and attempted murder. The trial ended five days ago and would you believe that jurors are still deliberating the case? I think I know why.
See, these guys are extremist Muslims and our court system and media want to protect them. Screw the Soldiers who were targeted. After all, they have probably killed Muslims themselves and deserve to die. But, underneath it all, the reality is that the media seems to think that the Fort Dix Five have it easy. They’re being given access to our courts while those poor, lost souls in Guantanamo are forced to rot in that 5-star hotel detention facility in Cuba.
Elmer Smith, of the Philadelphia Daily News, thinks the Albanian born accused terrorists deserve our rights just as those in Gitmo do.
These five had a right to habeas corpus, which forces the federal government to show why they should be held, the right to face their accusers, the right to a trial by jury and access to competent attorneys who made sure they got all those rights.
But, what Mr. Smith just doesn’t get is that there is a major difference between the terrorists captured in Iraq and Afghanistan and the terrorists caught near Fort Dix. Oh, did I just mention it. The Fort Dix Five committed their crimes here in our country. The war has not reached American shores because we are largely keeping the enemy at bay elsewhere. There are separate laws the dictate armed combat and normal criminal activity. In a time of war, the Hague and Geneva conventions are in effect.
It is very clear what constitutes a combatant (uniform, openly displayed weapons, etc). It is also very clear that illegal enemy combatants forfeit protections under the conventions for violating these law of war. Therefore, those monkeys in Gitmo don’t deserve anything but to rot in those prison cells until we decide to end the war or the extremist Islamists make peace with us.
In the meantime, though they SHOULD just rot in prison, we are doing everything we can to ensure we weed out the ones captured mistakenly and release them. Additionally, we’re releasing those that aren’t “as much of a threat” against us to placate the idiot American extremists calling for their release. Thankfully, I’m not in charge of Gitmo. They definitely wouldn’t have the luxuries they currently enjoy. Most – if not all – of them are living far better off than they did before they were ripped from their mud huts and caves.
Meanwhile, the Fort Dix Five are enjoying the fruits that our great country has to offer. They have enjoyed unrestricted freedom to plot and plan the deaths of hundreds of military personnel. They have enjoyed free travel across our fruited plains. They currently get to use a court system they’ve never known before. One that will weight evidence *cough* fairly – sorry, I’m not a fan of our justice system I guess – and present a verdict of guilt or innocence. If found guilty, I truly hope we ship them off to Gitmo. They’ll probably be treated better there than in some jail here in America – which is still better off than most of the poor and homeless in this country.
Back to Mr. Smith for a second. Mr. Smith doesn’t think the lives of American service members are worth the cost of trying these trolls and possibly shipping them back to their country. He doesn’t think that American service members’ lives are worth the more than $230,000 paid to the informant that turned them in.
My verdict, after admittedly only a few days in the courtroom, is that all six combined are not worth what it would cost to bubble-wrap them and ship them back where they came from.
They certainly aren’t worth the $236,000 the FBI paid Omar to spy or entrap or whatever he was doing with these hapless, would-be jihadists.
Throughout his article, Mr. Smith uses quotations about the word “plots” to describe what the men are accused of as if “ah, that doesn’t really matter.” This is the main problem with our media in this country. Whatever happened to nationalism where you root for the home team until the home team loses, then you analyze why they lost. Instead, we now analyze why we should lose before the game is even played. We deserve to lose in their minds. To further this, Mr. Smith asks benign questions like “Did Omar [the informant] prod the defendants to become active jihadists? Would there have been a crime without his participation?” Because, you know, WE are responsible for creating terrorists! It has nothing to do with their own extremist religious philosophies. Those poor, humble, ignorant Muslims.
fearless
December 21st, 2008 at 1:36 pmCj the MSM is now and has been since the late 1940’s against everything America stands for. They took the position that Alger Hiss was pure as new blown snow. The Rosenbergs were victims of the government. In my opinion every Muslim should be rounded up and shipped back to the crap country they cme from. Remember the MSM laments the death of our enemies but could would not even be bothered by the death of an American that died defending their right to be Stupid Jerk offs.
brat
December 21st, 2008 at 7:50 pm“They had all the protections of the U.S. Constitution, even those who are undocumented immigrants. Maybe that’s more justice than they deserve.
But I’m not willing to risk my access to justice by denying it to someone because I don’t think he deserves it. I’m not that terrified yet…”
I suppose that Smith will only be “terrified” enough when these “hapless” plotters actually carry through their plans and kill someone. And he is absolutely being disingenuous when he when he says that as undocumented immigrants (ie illegal aliens) they are entitled to all the same rights and priviledges as an actual legal American citizen. Interesting that you write this on the 20th anniversary of Lockerbie. I suppose in Smith’s world, even if he had heard the bombers planning THAT, he would have to find them not guilty because they had not killed anyone prior to the plan being carried out.
In short? He is a moron, and I just might have to write and tell him so.