Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday big-footed the brigadier general overseeing the war court at Guantanamo Bay and revoked the plea deals she had struck with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh-Mohammed and two co-conspirators, which took the death penalty off the table.
We support Austin’s move, but what does tough-as-nails former prosecutor Kamala Harris, the anointed Democratic presidential nominee, think about this issue? It would be nice to know, should the press ever dare to ask her a question.
There are a couple of reasons to wonder.
The first is her brother-in-law Tony West’s role as a "key campaign adviser" to Harris and co., according to Axios. The New York Times describes West, who served as number three in Barack Obama’s Department of Justice, as Harris’s "secret weapon." West was one of eight (!) al-Qaeda lawyers brought into the Justice Department by then-attorney general Eric Holder, including former acting solicitor general Neal Katyal, who was thankfully rendered unconfirmable due to the legal services he provided to America’s enemies.
West joined the Justice Department after serving as defense counsel for John Walker Lindh, also known as the "American Taliban." U.S. forces picked him up on an Afghan battlefield and brought him back home to the country he betrayed to stand trial. He served 20 years in prison when he pleaded guilty to providing support to the Taliban. West represented Lindh pro bono and argued that he was "not a terrorist."
That’s not the end of the story. According to the Times, West also "recommended bringing on Eric H. Holder, the former attorney general, to handle the vetting process for Ms. Harris’s running mate." Holder, of course, led the Obama administration’s efforts to move KSM’s case and those of his co-conspirators out of Gitmo and into a Manhattan courtroom. That left-wing legal gambit blew up in his face when outraged lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans alike, blocked the move.
Holder may be busy vetting potential Harris running mates, but not too busy to tap out a tweet last week defending his extremist view. "The people responsible for structuring this awful deal did the best they could," Holder said of KSM’s short-lived plea deal. "They were dealt a bad hand by political hacks and ideologues who lost faith in our justice system. KSM would be just a memory if my 2009 decision had been followed."
The people responsible for structuring this awful deal did the best they could. They were dealt a bad hand by political hacks and ideologues who lost faith in our justice system. KSM would be just a memory if my 2009 decision had been followed. #DannyPearl https://t.co/UzDg6cpTXc
— Eric Holder (@EricHolder) August 2, 2024
Does Harris share the views of her most influential advisers? Does she support a plea deal for KSM or his transfer from Gitmo to a civilian court? Does she support the death penalty? How would anyone even know? At this point, it seems farfetched to imagine anybody asking her—and even more farfetched to imagine her answering.