This morning Robert Gibbs, President Obama’s spokesmodel,* appeared on Cnn’s State of the Union. This is what the New York Daily News reports on the appearance:
"Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is going to meet justice and he’s going to meet his maker," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told John King on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday morning.
"He's likely to be executed for the heinous crimes he committed," he added.
I’ll try to get the transcript later, just on the principle of trust but verify, but if that is true, it goes to show what a complete sham all of this is.
Now myself, I say that these al Qaeda members are enemy combatants and under the laws of war, we are entitled to hold them until the end of the war without trial. But Obama has maintained that by putting them on trial we somehow reaffirm values that we have never shown in the face of any enemy, including the more honorable ones. The idea is somehow they deserve a fair trial.
Only Gibbs and everyone else knows he isn’t even going to get that.
And indeed, by weighing in like that, the government is harming his ability to get a fair trial. Prosecutors are not supposed to go around pronouncing defendants guilty on TV, and neither should the President’s
Not that I have any objection to the result, but if you are going to stand up for a principle—a fair trial for terrorists—well then you should actually stand up for it. Otherwise you’re just shoveling bullshit.
And you know how I feel about bullshit.
And you know how I feel about bullshit.
* I call the President’s Press Secretary, the guy or girl who just stands up an answers questions, the President’s “spokesmodel” to reflect on what a pointless position it is. On most topics, they are useless, because its not like they actually know more than they have been told, or that they make policy. It’s all a silly kabuki show, and I’m not terribly interested in it. But this is one of the rare times where I do expect the Spokesmodel to know something of importance—and that is the duty he owes not to pronounce defendants guilty before they are tried.
