9/11 KSM Trial Protest in Foley Square

WSJ (AP):

Several hundred people rallied in the rain near Manhattan’s federal courthouse complex Saturday to protest the plan to put major terrorism suspects on trial in New York City.Opponents of the plan say that a New York trial could again make the city a terrorism target, and that the five suspects should instead face a military tribunal.

Anger at the Obama administration ran hot in the crowd. One person held up a sign calling Attorney General Eric Holder “disgraceful and despicable.”

Demonstrators at the Saturday event included the actor Brian Dennehy and a number of people who lost friends and relatives in the 9/11 attacks. Addressing the crowd, Mr. Dennehy passed along a message from Judea Pearl, the father of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who is opposed to a public trial for reputed terror mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

The actor said he also believed the trial would be “an uncalled-for ordeal that could be used for political purposes.” “This will provide the radicals with a huge forum,” said Mr. Dennehy, a Marine Corps veteran. “Why should they have the normal constitutional protections?”

Lee Ielpi, a retired firefighter whose son, also a firefighter, died on 9/11, said he believed the U.S. has been in a state of war since the attacks, and that a military tribunal was therefore the appropriate venue for justice. “They deserve a fair trial in a military tribunal, not on our soil,” he said. “Guantanamo is where it should be.”…

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December 5, 2009. Tags: 9/11 conspirator trials in NYC, 9/11 KSM Trial protest, Andy McCarthy, Brian Dennehy, Curtis Sliwa, David Beamer, Foley Square 9/11 KSM Trial protest, Tim Brown. Obama Administration, Pentagon, Politics, Terrorism. 5 comments.