Mukasey: Don't Execute The 9/11 Plotters And Make Them Martyrs

LONDON — U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Friday he hopes the men charged with participating in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are not executed if found guilty to avoid making martyrs of them.

Mukasey said many terrorists want to be martyrs and that by sentencing them to death, U.S. authorities risk granting those wishes. He made the comments while answering a question after a talk at the London School of Economics.

However, Mukasey said that the punishment would be fitting if the accused are convicted.

"One of them at least is proud enough of it to have written to his wife that he thinks he is innocent because it was only 3,000 (people who died in the attacks)," he said. "If those are not poster children for the death penalty I don't know who is."

Still, Mukasey said he leans against the death penalty in this case because "many of them want to be martyrs."

The attorney general said his view was a personal opinion. The Justice Department will participate in the trial, he said, but the Defense Department will be in charge.

The U.S. military is moving ahead with plans to try six men at Guantanamo Bay. The six high-profile detainees include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed _ the alleged architect of the attacks against the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington _ and Mohammed al-Qahtani, who allegedly would have been one of the hijackers if immigration officers had not prevented him from entering the United States.

Military prosecutors have requested the death penalty, but a Pentagon panel must agree to the prosecutors' recommendations before they are presented to the defense and the military court, U.S. Justice spokesman Dean Boyd said in Washington. That panel has yet to issue its ruling, he said.

Comments

[JohnCochtosten]

Hey, the man does have a point.

I'm against the death penalty anyway. This is just another reason.

[Marlyn]

" the man does have a point." ???

Mukasey's point seems to be PUNISHMENT ... death is too good for these terrorists.

Mukasey is another INSANE person in power in our government right now. He is DISGUSTING.

[loki]

Maybe they are friends of the Bush family? After all , he does walk hand in hand with the Saudi's, even kisses them on the cheeks. And most of the highjackers were, saudi's,

[Passenger57]

How many people has the US killed in Iraq and Afghanistan that also wanted to be martyrs?

I like when the US paints some person/coountry as "bad",but when we do or say something,it's perfectly alright...who was it that said,around the time that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed, that there was no such thing as a Japanese civilian?

[deke33]

Yes, I wonder what would be the reaction of those two bullies, Bush and Cheney if they were to have to walk up the stairs to the gallows. Would they show the same equanamity that Saddam showed?

[McSnarky]

Ummmm, perspective please. When the Japanese conquered Nanking China they slaughtered upwards of 300,000 non-combatant Chinese civilians. That's in just one city. Thousands of women were decapitated after being gang raped, tens of thousands of children were butchered in front of their parents and still many thousands more were used for bayonette practice. There was no such thing as a Chinese civilian to the Imperial Japanese Army. All together, well in excess of a million innocent civilians were killed by the Japanese military during WW2. If you doubt this just Google "The Rape of Nanking".

Conservative estimates were that an invasion of the Japanese homeland would have cost over 1,000,000 American and Japanese lives. War is always brutal and many innocent people suffer. It should always be the last resort. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were horrific and Iraq should never have happened. And Bush needs to be condemned by history in the strongest terms for invading Iraq. But not all war is wrong and the death tolls at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were far less than the number of deaths that would have occured had we invaded the Japanese mainland.

Be careful, please. Statements like yours are one of the reasons that so many people cite the "wimp factor" when refusing to vote for a Democratic candidate for president.

[cognate]

Good point.

Saddam showed more dignity with a noose around his neck then George will ever have.

[deke33]

Oops replied to the wrong message above
Yes, I wonder what would be the reaction of those two bullies, Bush and Cheney if they were to have to walk up the stairs to the gallows. Would they show the same equanamity that Saddam showed?

[MetalCanuck]

Saddam was only working for the CIA...so you are right.

[MelCarnahan]

The murder of Saddam Hussein before evidence could be properly documented for history was an attempt to obstruct justice and destroy evidence of the Bushies supplying Saddam Hussein with chemicals.

The government's case for the Pet Goat Lesson is not credible. Murdering the fall guys will be nothing more than an attempt to obstruct justice and cover up evidence. Maybe these men of faith are guilty of something. But we do not have the whole story and we will need them later as a clearer picture emerges of the events of this faith-based Reichstag fire.

The truth will not emerge under the reign of the Arbusto Bandido but carrying out a death penalty against any of these kebab krazies, no matter how krazed they may seem, is nothing more than an attempt to obstruct future investigations and cover up evidence.

handsoffcain.info

[MetalCanuck]

You got that right, he was only doing the bidding of the US government.

[DumbDad]

"Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it..." Shakespeare in MacBeth, on the hanging of the Thane of Cawdor Act 1 Scene IV I think.

[shockedNawed]

Poor Pat, having to take up with those two. You're a classy guy, and they just don't know how to appreciate you.

[RebelPatriot]

Because they are still plotting.

[sassafra]

mukasey obviously wants them saved for waterboarding.

[hardrain77]

I never knew Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, Rockefeller, Greenspan etc. were up for execution. I must be in Utopia.

[SamuelBerry08]

I agree with the Attorney General, but for slightly different reasons. The USA needs to abandon the death penalty because a civilized nation, such as ours, should not engage in state-sponsored killing. The death penalty, along with dismemberment, may be the Islamic way, but it is not the Christian way.

[weslenforever]

The problem IS that the Bush Administration has told so incredibly many lies from day one about this that we do not know if these men are guilty of anything at all. Even in the face of absolute PROOF of lies, STILL, 19 percent of the people believe Bush. I NEVER DID. I read up on him and the whole Bush Clan BEFORE he was ever elected and I couldn't STAND his "daddy" either. This is a crime family from way back who's always been able to buy their way out of any and all crimes they've committed. Baby Bush bankrupted every business he ever worked for and STILL he swaggers around acting like he KNOWS EVERYTHING. He had two reasons for running for president. 1: to invade Iraq and gain control of the oil for himself, his "daddy" and his bff Cheney. 2: to achieve the New World Order his "daddy" wanted so much, make it so the richest 1 percent of the population would pay less taxes than minimum wage earners so his inheritance would not be taxed and destroy this government, which he's done a pretty good job of doing, while effectively eliminating all social programs and law enforcement agencies. FBI, CIA, FEMA, DHS, HHS, FDA, FCC, DOJ, CDC, any other agency you can name have been gutted and had people who know nothing about the work they do running them into the ground. So if you still believe these men are guilty of any crime based on the word of a KNOWN and even ADMITTED liar then call for executions. But if you think there is any doubt at all, they should be given a real trial with evidence of both innocence AND guilt presented before you make a judgement. And having Mukasey in that mix just makes the whole thing more suspicious than it already was.

[plages]

What about the perpetrators on Iraq!

[MadxAsxHell]

I suppose it's because water-boarding has no effect on a dead man--you can't torture any information, false or irrelevant, out of him.

[Abycat]

OK, Monkey See. Here's the deal. If they are tried and convicted, let's just put them in prison. Here's the catch. You pay for it.

[disgusted48]

This reminds me of something I have been wondering. Why was Sadaam Huesain executed so quickly? Why wasn't he tried in the Haig like all the other thug leaders of countries? (please note my spelling of various words is probably incorrect).

[JohnBarleycorn]

Just when I think we've hit the bottom of the Bush Co. stupidity well....

At least this pinhead is presumably expressing his honest opinions, unlike Senator Obama, who I hope the country is finally seeing for the snake he is.

Although given the "emperor has no clothes on" attitude evinced by Arianna and her Greek chorus of sycophants, I'm sure I'm hoping against hope.

The real issue is Rev. Wright, who now appears to be nothing other than Farrakhan for the Christian sect, and Obama's 11th hour repudiation of him.

What a horror show Obama would be. Wake up, America, this kind of change we don't need.