Just musing (and I'm in between meetings): While I bristle at the idea of Bin Ladin being turned over to a "World Court", the non-emotive part of me wonders if Bin Ladin could get what we consider in America a "fair" trial, by U.S. standards. Certainly you could never have a jury trial: the standards by which some trials are moved out of a county or out of a state due to the difficulty of finding 12 jurors with an unbiased view would never be met in this country. And the pressure on a judge to rule the case on purely evidentiary standards would be incredible, particularly when we are saying that most of the evidence has classified implications.

So, do we in America truly care whether Bin Ladin could recieve a "fair" trial? Fair in the purely legal sense, not the moral sense (and we know there is often a large delta between the two.)

I'm not sure I want him to stand trial.

Interesting question. I tend to think we should not regard him as a criminal so much as a soldier attacking us--though that runs the risk of dignifying terrorism with the label of warfare. Quite a quandary.

>do we in America truly care whether Bin Ladin could recieve a "fair" trial? Fair in the purely legal sense, not the moral sense

Not unless you want him to be released. Any "trial" would either be an embarrassing showtrial, or...he'd win, unless they relaxed the burden of proof. There won't be a "smoking gun", they won't get Sammy the Bull to turn and testify against him -- while they may be able to provide proof on a balance of probabilities (i.e., they proving it's more likely than not that he did it), I doubt they'd be able to satisfy the 'criminal' standard of proof -- i.e., that there isn't any reasonable doubt of his guilt. But no trial would actually require the prosecution to satisfy that lofty burden. Bah, just for the stuff he's admitted, he should just be killed.

"I tend to think we should not regard him as a criminal so much as a soldier attacking us"

So he's wearing the uniform of some army, then? Didn't people who conducted war out-of-uniform used to get shot as spies? Or shot as 'partisans'?

I think there will have to be a gloabal rethinking of what constitutes a soldier and what constitutes a civilian. All our rules are hung up on nation-state affiliation. If a white supremesist army emerged in the US, armed with automatic weapons and explosives, and were carrying out terrorist attacks on Jewish and Arab targets in the Middle East, how would we regard them? Would we try to arrest them and put them all on trial? Say there's a couple hundred of them holed up in a well fortified compound in the middle of nowhere, let's say it's a converted missle silo for the sake of argument, and they won't come out without a fight. Would it be a police or military action, the task of taking out the base?

Based on the reports about US Special Forces activity in Afghanistan the last two weeks, a "trial" may be a moot point. I would be interested to know how the order to capture or kill Bin Ladin was given - more emphasis on the kill or the capture.

Sometimes I believe we should capture him and bring him to the US for trial rather than make a martyr out of him. I wouldn't give him any special treatment though. Put him in with the general population in NYC's biggest jail. The WTC tradgedy didn't just impact the nice people in the world. I'm sure there are several criminals in NYC jails who lost a mother, brother, sister, best friend or other close connection who would love to vigorously discuss the philosophical pros and cons of terrorism and its use in forwarding religious or political movements. It would be the shortest and most painful 30 seconds of Bin Ladin's life.

-DavidCPA

No, I think it'd end up being the *longest* hour of his life.

And that wouldn't make Bin Laden a martyr?

-Andrew

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And that wouldn't make Bin Laden a martyr?

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Might make some sense? This is not France he is hiding in, these people deal out the death sentence for farting in public. They are going to kill 2 americans now for preaching about christ. They have killed women for showing their faces. Men for not growing beards. This is not some pansy justice system. They make China seem thoughtful.

Chet