Judge Coughenour's Little Lecture

The Millennium Bomber, Ahmed Ressam, was sentenced to 22 years by U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour for plotting to bomb the LA airport. With credit for time served and three years off for good behavior, Ressam could be out of prison in 14 years.

Considering that the prosecutors pushed for 35 years, this ridicously light punishment doesn’t fit the crime.

Coughenour said the successful prosecution of Ahmed Ressam should serve not only as a warning to terrorists, but as a statement to the Bush administration about its terrorism fighting tactics.

"We did not need to use a secret military tribunal, detain the defendant indefinitely as an enemy combatant or deny the defendant the right to counsel," he said Wednesday. "The message to the world from today's sentencing is that our courts have not abandoned our commitment to the ideals that set our nation apart."

He added that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have made Americans realize they are vulnerable to terrorism and that some believe "this threat renders our Constitution obsolete ... If that view is allowed to prevail, the terrorists will have won."

The only resulting “warning to terrorists” is the promise of a light sentence, with the utmost priority being the terrorists’ rights instead of prosecuting the terrorist to the fullest extent of the law.

It was Jamie Gorlick’s “wall of separation” preventing info sharing between the feds and the CIA that allowed Ahmed Ressam to get as far as he did, and it was sheer luck for a border guard to spot Ressam. This was back in the days when terrorist acts were treated as crimes and not acts of war.

I, for one, DON’T believe the terrorist threat renders our Constitution obsolete.

Thank God the fate of the enemy combatants at Gitmo doesn’t rest with Judge Coughenour who is using his bench to politick while exhorting “ideals that set our nation apart”. Crimes of enemy combatants are tried in a military venue, not in a criminal court, and detainees are afforded all the rights pursuant therein.

Lots more from Captain’s Quarters, as well as, Michelle Malkin.

LynZee