Holder: Osama bin Laden Will Never Face US Trial (We will be reading Miranda rights to the corpse)

[tekisui]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress on Tuesday that Osama bin Laden will never face trial in the United States because he will not be captured alive.

In testy exchanges with House Republicans, the attorney general compared bin Laden to mass murderer Charles Manson and predicted that events would ensure "we will be reading Miranda rights to the corpse of Osama bin Laden" not to the al-Qaida leader as a captive.

Holder sternly rejected criticism from GOP members of a House Appropriations subcommittee, who contend it is too dangerous to put terror suspects on trial in federal civilian courts as Holder has proposed.

The attorney general said it infuriates him to hear conservative critics complain that terrorists would get too many rights in the court system.

Terrorists in court "have the same rights that Charles Manson would have, any other kind of mass murderer," the attorney general said. "It doesn't mean that they're going to be coddled, it doesn't mean that they're going to be treated with kid gloves."

The comparison to convicted killer Manson angered Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, who said it showed the Obama administration doesn't understand the American public's desire to treat terrorists as wartime enemies, not criminal defendants.

"My constituents and I just have a deep-seated and profound philosophical difference with the Obama administration," Culberson said.

Holder, his voice rising, charged that Culberson's arguments ignored basic facts about the law and the fight against terrorists.

"Let's deal with reality," Holder said. Bin Laden "will never appear in an American courtroom."

Pressed further on that point, Holder said: "The possibility of catching him alive is infinitesimal. He will be killed by us or he will be killed by his own people so he can't be captured by us."

more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jg37IDZBvL02KR4ekOfiz6SKBjIAD9EFUNP00

[elocs]

1. Interesting, aside from the fact that I think he has been dead for years.

Not too many dialysis machines readily available in those mountain caves anyways.

[Echo In Light]

2. +1

[tekisui]

4. My ears perked up.

I feel like the final chapter on OBL is fast approaching. I agree about thinking him dead for years, though.

[Robb]

3. Probably true

...But I don't think that possibility is what we should base decisions about how to charge and try suspected terrorists upon.

[tekisui]

6. You are spot on.

[aquart]

5. "Killed by us"? IOW, we don't want the damned trial.

We can't even manage to try the lesser dregs we did capture, this would drive us completely around the bend. So, should we meet him on the street, assassination free pass.

[democraticinsurgent]

7. Clearly they know he is dead

Wonder why they can't just admit it?

Oh yeah. There's a lot of stuff they can't discuss because we just couldn't handle the truth.

[tavalon]

8. Safe bet, since he's been dead for years

[Supersedeas]

9. only to rise again when the GOP needs another pre-election campaign ad

[tavalon]

18. Yeah, he's one well kept Republican zombie

[elocs]

10. YouTube: Benazir Bhutto--Bin Laden was murdered.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zScYmvmANcA (It's also an anti-Bush video.)

[Sebastian Doyle]

11. Freudian slip there, Eric?

You weren't supposed to admit he was dead! :rofl:

[timeforpeace]

12. Feeble attempt at ducking the question. He is an embarassment as AG of the US.

[MadHound]

13. Well, looks like they're finally moving slowly foward to finally declaring the truth

That he's been dead for years now.

[Edweird]

14. I'm ok with killing him a second time.

[Swamp Rat]

15. His body has been dead for years.

His spectre still works for the living.

[frylock]

16. and neither will dick cheney

[Bluebear]

17. Nor will Bush and Cheney.

[kenny blankenship]

19. Sounds like he's not sure of inculpating evidence

Doesn't he have a case against OBL - a big fat file folder of charges and testimony ready to go? I would have thought that was part of the AG's job...

What do they pay this guy for - just protecting the Bush regime's torturers and warrantless wiretap henchmen?

[Kitty Herder]

20. Perhaps this is an odd way of admitting that Bin Laden is dead. nt