Post-9/11; insight into the federal procecution of suspected terrorists

Should our government have the right to kill U.S citizens abroad without a trial or due process? Apparently we already have the answer.

After an initial delay, Faisal Shahzad, the failed Times Square car bomber, stood up today in a federal courthouse in downtown Manhattan and entered a plea of “guilty”.

Who knew that a ‘lone wolf’ as NBC’s Richard Engel repeatedly characterized Faisal Shahzad last night on The Rachel Maddow Show, could have an accomplice? Let alone one half a world away.

Pepe Escobar’s latest article for Asia Times Online, The American Taliban are coming, deconstructs the “official” myth-making regarding the failed Times Square bombing, looks into the worldview of neo-jihadis like Faisal Shahzad, Dhiren Barot, and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and sees blowback on America’s horizon.

The Circle of Jerks–let’s throw away the Constitution and prove you can’t threaten American freedoms! or something like that.

I am the Afghanistan Blogging Fellow for The Seminal and Brave New Foundation. You can read my work on The Seminal or at Rethink Afghanistan. The views expressed below are my own. The alleged Times Square Bomber, Faisal Shahzad, has apparently claimed that the US drone strikes in Pakistan were part of his motivation to [...]

It is a central pillar of my philosophy of life that if you live in fear the worst thing that can happen to you already has. While not wanting to get all fan-boy about things Frank Herbert did hit on a small “t” truth when he wrote that fear is the mind killer. This is why there are and have been acts of terror all through the history of our species. Using our ability to be afraid of the next horrible thing to influence the actions of people is something Sun Tzu and Machiavelli would both approve of. Fear makes your opponent do dumb things and ultimately makes them easier to defeat.

Which is why the current spasms of legislation in response to the attempted truck bombing in Time Square is so disappointing. We have a couple of proposals which under any other climate would be laughed out of Congress that are going to be taking up time over the next few weeks.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

The first one is the risible plan by Sen. Joe Lieberman (Putz- CT) to allow the State Department to determine if you are associated with a terrorist group. They could provisionally strip you of your citizenship. You could challenge it in court, but only after the fact, not before the decision was made.

Hakimullah Mehsud threatens US attacks as revenge for incarceration of Dr. Aafia Siddique. His terror group Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan in NWF appears to be tied in to the Times Square car bomb suspect. Faisal Shahzad received bomb-making training in South-Waziristan, his birthplace is near Peshawar and sought revenge for US drone killings of Taliban leaders.

The Miranda rule means the government doesn’t later have to spend months arguing in court over whether a suspect’s statements were voluntary or coerced.