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Did John McCain Get a Tilt in the al Qaeda Trials?
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So after years and years of doing nothing with the detainees at Guantanamo, the Bush administration decides to launch the "al Qaeda trials" -- which the administration is comparing to Nuremberg -- during this stretch of the political campaign season.
These trials will benefit the hawkish McCain on is own side of the aisle where many Republicans are still skeptical of the seriousness of his conservatism -- but the trials will also diminish some of the gap between the pro-war right and the ambivalent national security nationalists on the left.
In other words, the launch of the al Qaeda trials is a huge political gift to John McCain.
-- Steve Clemons
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Reader Comments (20) - post a comment
"Nuremberg" if it was held by the Germans, right?
The timing certainly doesn't appear to be a coincidence... not surprising for this administration.
Part of "the plan". The only plan that the Bush Administration has had.
---definite attempt for election cycle fear mongering....yet wont have the desired effect unless bush can pull bin laden out of hat....
I have to question if most people don't view this as a transparent ruse at this point. If they didn't, wouldn't Rudy Giuliani be the front runner for the GOP right now?
Not sure that dog hunts very much anymore.
Al Qaeda trials help McCain??? Only if we have an election. Busholini doesn't help anyone but himself. The trials will just be good old Pavlovian conditioning re-inforcement to all those who can't think out of the box believers and for why a whole bunch of us "enemy combatants" need to be carted off to those Halliburton-built detention centers. There's one with a 7 million capacity in Alaska. Bridge to Nowhere? I think not.
Help McCain? Only among the low-information voters. They might just remind people that the threat to the US has never had anything to do with Iraq.
the ambivalent national security nationalists on the left.
the what? the which? the who?
The Bush administration is shameless -- to compare the events of 9/11 to the Holocaust is completely inappropriate. Moreover, I doubt that all six defendants were fully aware of the precise nature of the plot, especially since there was no "need to know" for those who would be the 'muscle'.
This is just one more case where the Bush administration is embarrassing the US in the international community.
If Obama gets the democratic nomination, we'll see just how cogent his arguments against the "politics of fear" are. I think fear and anxiety are such powerful political weapons that any politician who fights against them is facing a difficult battle. A plus for Obama is that I suspect he anticipated this tactic, which is part of why he has been talking about the politics of fear for the past several months.
I don't see a lot here for McCain. He wants to shut down Gitmo and is against torture, so if he says "good job", he's a hypocrite, and if he says says "it's wrong", his own party eats him alive. But, since Republicans like to be lied to, McCain will probably say, "good job" and no one will call him on his record and the "base" will rally around him.
Obama and Clinton will gleefully point out his flip-flop in debates.
MILO - exactly!!!!!!!!
Terror terror terror surrender democrats terror terror.
-- Love, Republican World
P.S. Expect more where this came from.
Well, I don't think Bush can plan anything very well. It's not going to be public nor will the trials be televised. And the defense is bound to raise that confessions obtained by waterboarding can't be admitted. I believe its accurate that after WWII we held war crime trials for Japanese who used waterboarding on prisoners.
Since the link reported that this was sent out by State Department to U.S. Embassies as talking points, it makes me think that we need a new Secretary of State in a new administration ASAP. I don't see this as any gift to McCain--just more reason why we need to elect a Democrat.
Wise up, people. The timing here has nothing to do with the elections. It is to counter the media disclosures of what a fuckin' joke the 9/11 Commission was, with Zelikow licking Bush boots throughout the whole process.
There is truly a groundswell of citizens who are beginning to doubt this fantastic fantasy of impossible "coincidences" that is the official explanation for the events of 9/11. Above all else, these monsters cannot let the truth about 9/11 be known, because we would be rioting in the streets. Get ready for a show trial that will parrot the "official story" ad nauseum.
then their is the secret spy program that was extended today with immunity to the telecoms.. it is such a lame congress thanks to pelosi, reid et all bending over and letting bush stick it to them, and the american people... i agree 100% with you poa..
Steve, I hadn't made the connection, but I think you're correct. Narrowing the divide between the pro-war right and the national-security left may fruther lead some of the latter (like myself) to vote for Mac should Obama become the Dems nominee.
POA.. did you hear Bill Clinton recently say that 9/11 was not an inside job? I forget where he was speaking but there was clip of his statement on the tube a couple of weeks ago...so why did Dopey have to hold Darth's hand and refuse to go on the record????
This puts a target on the back of everyone in the foreign service.
Once we set this as precedent they can kangaroo court anyone they deem to after rendition and torture.
Americans should fight this like it's their own on trial, because it will soon be so.
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