As you know, terrorists involved with the planning or execution of the September 11, 2001, attacks are evidently heading to New York City for a criminal trial. The press has dubbed this the KSM Trial, after the self-confessed mastermind Khālid Shaykh Muķamed, and continuing to repeat what you already know, most of the country is strongly against these trials, as a recent Rasmussen poll confirmed.

Conservatives and Republicans both agree that this is a show trial to condemn President Bush. The Czar is aware of this but is not confident a criminal trial will really do much in that regard. However, as a show trial to condemn the Bush administration’s treatment of the terrorists, maybe a case can be made there.

But here is the thing.

These guys are not American citizens, nor were they arrested on American soil by law enforcement. The right to a trial by jury is a bit of a stretch for “foreigners living abroad,” especially when some of them—such as KSM himself—did not actually commit a physical crime on American soil nor Americans living abroad, but conspiracy to do so.

Many think he is being given de facto citizenship status.

That is bad, and it has a lot of people concerned—what if he is found not guilty? After all, he was never read his rights, evidence was not collected at the scene, and the arresting personnel (many if not all of whom were Pakistani agents) are not sworn law enforcement and therefore will not testify.

No worries, says our US Attorney General, because if that happens, we will immediately arrest him and charge him with something else given his obvious guilt. What then? RICO? Tax evasion? Rebroadcast, retransmission, or account of a game without the express written consent of Major League Baseball?

In fact, President Obama is even less worried, stating that he fully expects KSM to be sentenced to death. End of story.

In the twisted world of ObamaLand, KSM is being given the Constitutional rights of an American just so that he can have them taken away. Okay. So why bother trying him? A trial is held in the United States because an individual is presumed innocent no matter how substantial the case is against him. A state’s attorney or district attorney can say the evidence is significant, or that the facts will clearly prove guilt, or that he or she is confident the jury will concur…but notice the phrasing. You never come out and say the accused is guilty, and that he will be sentenced to death on some charge, even if it means re-arresting him in the courtroom. Even though we say “guilty until proven innocent,” we really mean “guilty unless proven innocent.” Prosecutors know this, and phrase their indictments carefully to reflect this.

And this is what bothers the Czar. In the twisted world of ObamaLand, KSM is being given the Constitutional rights of an American just so that he can have them taken away. He is provisionally guilty until found very much guilty, and will face double jeopardy to ensure it.

Look, if you are so convinced of his guilt, you really are under no obligation to try the bastard. He is not an American citizen. He is a military prisoner and should be treated as such. A military trial operates under different rules, and for a prisoner of war there is not necessarily a presumption of innocence but there can be a hearing to determine how guilty he is and what his subsequent fate is. Anything less is a bizarre farce to no particular good end.

But forget about all that and return back to our observation. The President, through his AG, basically thinks that if the case is strong enough against someone in his own judgment, the Constitutional presumption of innocence need not apply.

Where does that stop? A paranoid sort might think that if the President can do that to KSM, he can do that to an ordinary American. Maybe, maybe not: but remember that the President is redefining who is subject to a trial for the sole purpose of finding him guilty.

No one has a problem with this? Is this what Bush should have done to Hussein?

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.