24-05-2011, 12:27 PM
Mr. Lewis,
I am sorry to have to point out that the World Trade Center site was NOT a crime scene. It should have neen treated as such, but GWBush took care of that by declaring almost immediately that we had been attacked... and attacked by Al Qaeda, a group of terrorists.
Attacks of war are not considered criminal matters under the jurisdiction of state or local authorities.
Terrorism had lived in a gray area in the law. Many terrorism cases were considered criminal acts and were investigated as such, with criminal trials and appropriate penalties which followed.
9/11 effectively changed that... the "war on terrorism" would not be dealt with as criminal activity. We've recently seen how supposedly (though many don't believe the account) OBL was simply killed, his body disposed of.. etc... with not even a need to bring him to trial, present evidence of his quilt for charges presented, or even evidence that he was assassinated.
You can't destroy evidence in a war from a local jurisdictional pov because these courts have no jurisdiction. Terrorism is an act of war not a crime!
We may not agree with this reasoning and it clearly has many troubling implications, but that is what we are up against, and perhaps why not case involving "evidence" of criminality has seen the light of day in a single city, state or federal court.
This appears clearly to be one of the national security state's tricks to use terrorism for their hidden agenda. All the extraordinary rendition, torture, drone strike, assassinations, warrantless spying, no fly lists, the USAPATRIOT Act, classification of people as enemy combatants with no legal rights and so forth a flow from declaring "terrorism" an act of war.
The notion of a war crime DOES exist and can be adjudicated in the ICC. And clearly the US is guilty of many war crimes. But no nation seems to want to take us on at the ICC and so we get away with murder... destroying evidence of crimes.... literally.
It's a brave new world.
I am sorry to have to point out that the World Trade Center site was NOT a crime scene. It should have neen treated as such, but GWBush took care of that by declaring almost immediately that we had been attacked... and attacked by Al Qaeda, a group of terrorists.
Attacks of war are not considered criminal matters under the jurisdiction of state or local authorities.
Terrorism had lived in a gray area in the law. Many terrorism cases were considered criminal acts and were investigated as such, with criminal trials and appropriate penalties which followed.
9/11 effectively changed that... the "war on terrorism" would not be dealt with as criminal activity. We've recently seen how supposedly (though many don't believe the account) OBL was simply killed, his body disposed of.. etc... with not even a need to bring him to trial, present evidence of his quilt for charges presented, or even evidence that he was assassinated.
You can't destroy evidence in a war from a local jurisdictional pov because these courts have no jurisdiction. Terrorism is an act of war not a crime!
We may not agree with this reasoning and it clearly has many troubling implications, but that is what we are up against, and perhaps why not case involving "evidence" of criminality has seen the light of day in a single city, state or federal court.
This appears clearly to be one of the national security state's tricks to use terrorism for their hidden agenda. All the extraordinary rendition, torture, drone strike, assassinations, warrantless spying, no fly lists, the USAPATRIOT Act, classification of people as enemy combatants with no legal rights and so forth a flow from declaring "terrorism" an act of war.
The notion of a war crime DOES exist and can be adjudicated in the ICC. And clearly the US is guilty of many war crimes. But no nation seems to want to take us on at the ICC and so we get away with murder... destroying evidence of crimes.... literally.
It's a brave new world.