Good analysis of the 9/11 conspiracy trial in Spain over at Captain’s Quarters. The verdict was a strange mix of good news, bad news, and odd news that, sum total, underscores the inappropriateness of treating al-Qaeda’s terrorism as just another form of crime.

It’s simply nutty to send to send a convicted al-Qaeda agent to prison and then release him after he’s served his six-year sentence. Locking up suspected terrorists in Guantanamo or other detention facilities is idefinitely a much better way to go. Our constitution and our laws are for the protection of America’s citizens and they should not be allowed to work as weapons against us. That simply cannot be allowed.

Spain has put itself in a hopeless position: al-Qaeda must strike against the country in retaliation for the the verdicts, or else it will lose face, yet the countries reactive response to terrorism makes it less likely to be able to deflect and defeat such strikes. I am unwilling to say that Spain “surrendered” to the al-Qaeda when its voters dumped the center-right government in favor of left-wing appeasers, but the Spaniards sure tied their hands behind their backs.

Spanish trains: Been there, done that, for sure won’t do them again until Spain gets its act together.

Update: Power Line passes on another example of why Gitmo is better.

This entry was posted posted by Zach on Tuesday, September 27th, 2005 at 4:20 pm under War on Terror. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.