Readers Write 12/02

JUDICIARY

Sept. 11 trial would send out a strong message

A civilian trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed makes sense. Our courts are where the U.S. Constitution lives. By trying the Sept. 11 mastermind in an Article III court, we send a strong message that acts of terror will never change the U.S. commitment to justice and the rule of law.

Nor shall we cower in the face of national security threats — including terrorism. This decision makes America stronger. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed wants glorious martyrdom, and he wants his followers to see it. Instead, they’ll see a middle-aged man in a prison jumpsuit, and a confident America, assured in its ability to render unto this monster the punishment he deserves. 

American strength starts with American values. Those who play politics with this trial undermine both.

Jeff Schoenberg, Dunwoody

JUDICIARY

Don’t forget terrorists’ actions were acts of war

The president and all his men seem to forget that the Pentagon was attacked on 9 /11, and a plane was headed toward another target in Washington. But for the actions of a brave group of passengers, in all probability, the House of Representatives or the White House would have been hit. This was an act of war. To demand these foreign terrorists be treated as criminals, protected by the Constitution, to display the superiority of our judicial system is snobbery and arrogance. Had they dropped an atom bomb on a U.S. city, would that still be a criminal act — or had Hamas done this, would we be toting them to our shores for a trial, or having a military tribunal?

John Krieger, Monroe

PUBLIC SAFETY

Time to keep criminals in jail, off the streets

Atlanta Police Maj. Khirus Williams is only partly right that we all have to be more vigilant, as a result of the recent rise in car break-ins in Midtown (“In brief”, Metro, Nov. 18). What we really need is a criminal justice system that will keep repeat offenders off the street. The common denominator in almost every news story I read about criminals is that they are on parole, probation or out on bail for some other crime. It’s wrong when decent people have to live in fear, while career criminals continue to go through the revolving door of our criminal justice system.

When people with arrest records as long as phone books are still running free, it tells everyone that crime does pay, and our criminal justice system is a joke.

Mark Scott, Atlanta

HEALTH

Are new guidelines first step to rationing?

If the new breast screening guidelines aren’t the most illogical, obfuscating clap-trap. What is the potential harm to be avoided? Anxiety? That sounds pretty patronizing. So, let it go for two years. Stop teaching breast exams? Some cancers found should be left alone anyway, and you’ll die of something else? Early detection is the best hope for a cure, but you’d better hope that yours just started to grow a few months before your every two-year screening.

Now, we don’t think that this nonsense is the new face of “rationing health care” that the government can’t afford, anyway? United States Preventive Services Task Force: an independent task force? Yeah, right.

Lynne Gray, Cumming