Is McCain Lying or Misinformed?
Senator John McCain issued this statement after the conviction of Salim Hamdan:
“I welcome today’s guilty verdict in the first trial held under the Military Commissions Act (MCA). This process of bringing terrorists to justice has been too long delayed, but I’m encouraged that it is finally moving forward. I supported that legislation, which was a good-faith effort by Congress to meet the Supreme Court’s direction to establish a process to bring terrorist detainees to trial. Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a trusted confidante of Usama Bin Laden, was provided a full hearing of the charges against him and was represented by counsel who vigorously defended him. The jury found that the prosecution lawyers had proven, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Hamdan had aided terrorists by supplying weapons to Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan. This process demonstrated that military commissions can effectively bring very dangerous terrorists to justice. The fact that the jury did not find Hamdan guilty of all of the charges brought against him demonstrates that the jury weighed the evidence carefully. Unlike Senator Obama who voted against the MCA and favors giving Al Qaeda terrorists direct access to U.S. civilian courts to contest their detention, I recognize that we cannot treat dangerous terrorists captured on the battlefield as we would common criminals.”
Nice statement. Very nice statement. Strong, forceful. Clear. And clearly wrong! “Hamdan had aided terrorists by supplying weapons to Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan,” according to McCain. What? Nothing could be further from the truth. This is a deliberate attempt to confuse the public.
As the Washington Post article said, “The military jury of five men and one woman found Hamdan guilty of supporting al-Qaeda by driving and guarding bin Laden and ferrying weapons for the terrorist group.” He did not supply weapons. The jury did not find him guilty of supplying weapons. If they did, he would have gotten the death penalty, or at least life in prison. He got neither. So, my question is does McCain think that we are stupid?
