"[This book] embodies the Buddhist wisdom about change, life, and the
world more than anything written after the events of that day."
Robert Stone

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March 6, 2010

TRIAL ... AND ERROR

It appears that the trials of five accused 9/11 plotters may ultimately be held under the auspices of military tribunals, not in criminal court. This is precisely the avenue that many people advocated – including yours truly -- when Attorney General Eric Holder, last November, laid out the administration’s original plan to hold criminal trials in Manhattan.

Here was my take on November 21 of last year (“Guantanamo on the Hudson”), when the initial, ill-conceived announcement was made:

“Some of the Guantanamo internees will be coming to New York for trial, chief among them, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. While many have lambasted the decision to allow the perpetrators back into this city - let alone a courthouse or prison a stone’s throw from Ground Zero - what I find most perplexing is the fallacy that justice will be served here.

“How is it possible to convene a judicial proceeding in these circumstances and in this venue? How on earth can KSM and his compatriots get what would be considered ‘a fair trial’ within the jurisdiction of Manhattan? And where, in America, would they ever find a ‘jury of their peers’? While I found Guantanamo to be a pure travesty, one that ran counter to every notion of civil behavior in a time of war, I find the current scenario to be an invitation for a kangaroo court.

“We are in a time of war. These are combatants, some of whom have already admitted war crimes. If there is a trial, the trial should be held before a military tribunal.”

LITERARY ALERT. The latest Vanity Fair book comes out next week. It’s called The Great Hangover: 21 Tales of the New Recession, from the Pages of Vanity Fair. Now available at better bookstores everywhere.

greathangover.jpg

YENTABYTES AND SHIKSABYTES. For comic relief, check out my blog post from yesterday on VanityFair.com.

AFGHAN E-MAIL. This e-mail comes from photographer Ed Grazda, who has been to Afghanistan 20 times as a working journalist and cultural observer: "i was just rereading [Jack Kerouac's] On the Road and came across this passage: 'When daybreak came we were zooming through New Jersey with the great cloud of Metropolitan New York rising before us in the snowy distance. Dean had a sweater around his ears to keep warm. He said we were a band of Arabs coming in to blow up New York......' "

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