Opinion Forum

Pentagon and White House Cross Swords?

April 27th, 2011

In a surprise announcement, Pentagon prosecutors have declared their intention to re-file war crimes charges against the mastermind of the deadly attack on the American warship, the USS Cole, in the Port of Aden, Yemen on October 12, 2000.

Seventeen U.S. sailors were killed and 40 other American service personnel were wounded when a small vessel, laden with explosives and manned with suicide bombers, rammed into the American Navy warship.

The announcement included the original request of the military prosecution for an imposition of the death penalty on the self-admitted Cole bomber, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, 46, the former al-Qaeda chief of operations for the Arabian Peninsula. Al-Nashiri hails from Saudi Arabia and is of Yemeni descent. …

Eleven charges are being leveled against al-Nashiri in the Pentagon’s 13-page charge sheet, including murder in violation of the law of war, treachery, terrorism and conspiring with Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al Zawahiri, among others. The sheet also listed the names of each sailor that died in the USS Cole attack.

This appears to be at odds with the White House position as taken in August of last year that it was not considering prosecution of al-Nashiri, saying in court documents that

“no charges are either pending or contemplated with respect to al-Nashiri in the near future.” Prosecutors will now need the approval of retired Vice Admiral Bruce McDonald, the Pentagon appointee overseeing the Guantanamo tribunals to proceed with the charges. If the charge sheet is approved, al-Nashiri would face the first-ever capital prosecution at the war court called Camp Justice. (emphasis added)

Try the poor soul by military commission? As a capital case? That would certainly upset some of President Obama’s more Librul supporters. However, there is nothing inconsistent in the tendency of Administration colleagues to speak inconsistently as the boss dithers.

What Gibbs?

(This article was also posted at The PJ Tatler.)

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: death penalty, DOD, DOJ, terrorism, terrorist, trial, USS Cole, White House
Categories: Law, Military, News, Politics | Comments (4) | Home

4 Responses to “Pentagon and White House Cross Swords?”

Tom Carter | April 29th, 2011 at 8:47 am

Hmmm. I don’t know if there’s a direct clash between Defense and Justice, but I’m sure some of Holder’s folks aren’t happy. This would seem to be a logical consequence of Holder losing the fight to try terrorists like common criminals.

Capital punishment is available for certain crimes in both the federal system and in the military justice system. The big differences are there’s a better chance of a guilty party escaping justice in a federal court, and it’s more likely that an innocent party will be brought to trial in a federal court.

Dan Miller | April 30th, 2011 at 3:25 pm

Tom, here is an article published today at Pajamas Media which may put a finger on President Obama’s problem.

Tom Carter | April 30th, 2011 at 8:20 pm

Dan, that’s a good article. Right-wing extremists have always been convinced in their fevered minds that Obama is evil, a socialist with a secret agenda to destroy American, and that he came to power because some malevolent force “sold out American” to get him into office. They were convinced about this from the very beginning, long before he demonstrated any actual weaknesses. They’re also, by the way, firm believers in the conservative conspiracy theory du jour, whatever it may be. The NWO, black helicopters, etc. Sadly, some of them are also racists.

The truth is that Obama could have been a good president except for his now-demonstrated ineptitude and that of those he chose as advisers. From the beginning I hoped that he would do well because that’s important for all of us; over time, he has proved to be inadequate.

Seven | July 2nd, 2011 at 6:43 pm

Sir I believe the justice system is a little broken, because if I were those prosecutors, with a responsibility to prosecute those crimes and not look the other way when other countries are interfering with our business, be it war or civil insurrection, all things must come under an umbrella of respect and when a country attacks any ship, fleet, group, special or private, in war time or in our technological war, We The People Shall Prevail. At no time shall any nation interfere with the operations of this government on any Level regardless of all those in government who believe they are in control of the nations security. The underground, shadow government, illuminaties, freemasons, kiawanas, the Church, ect. , follow a code, and all People and Nations should abide by that, despite their differences. The military as well follows a code and all within that environment should abide by that code. Other Nations as well are well aware of the conflicts and the nature of war. Should not they also respect the Code. Who allows another country to receive impunity for crimes against Our country? Do we not Support this government, and all its measures? Why then would such destruction of Our Warships be allowed? Think about who created this country, Not the prosecutors of this nation.