Courtroom Cirque du Jihad

Imagine this
nightmare courtroom scenario: Unhinged Jew-bashing, open
mockery of American soldiers, juror intimidation and
coldly calculated exploitation of U.S. constitutional
protections by a suspected al-Qaida defendant. Well,
there`s no need to wait for the Gitmo terror trial
circuses. New York City is already getting a glimpse of
the future.

Jihadi scientist Aafia Siddiqui is

on trial right now
in a federal Manhattan court for the attempted murder
and assault of U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan`s
Ghazni province two years ago. She`s an accomplished
Karachi-born scientist who studied microbiology at MIT
and did graduate work in neurology at Brandeis
University before disappearing in the wake of

the 9/11 attacks.

Counterterrorism
investigators connected Siddiqui and her estranged
husband, anesthesiologist Dr. Mohammed Amjad Khan, to
Saudi terror funders. The couple`s bank account showed
repeated purchases of high-tech military equipment and
apparel, including body armor, night-vision goggles and
military manuals. Her second husband, fellow al-Qaida
suspect and 9/11 plot helper Ammar al-Baluchi, is one of
five Gitmo detainees the Obama administration is
planning to transfer to New York for trial.

Siddiqui was
identified as an al-Qaida operative, financier and fixer
by no less than 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
during U.S. interrogations. Al-Baluchi is KSM`s nephew.
Mohammed reportedly enlisted Siddiqui in a
Baltimore-based plot to bomb gas stations, fuel tanks
and bridges, and to poison water reservoirs in the
greater Washington, D.C., area. Siddiqui was taken into
custody in Ghazni in July 2008 after attempting to shoot
U.S. military interrogators and FBI agents.

Now, the savvy
“Terror Mom”
of three is pulling out all the stops to win a mistrial.
Among her Cirque du Jihad antics:

• 
  Demanding that
  jurors be genetically tested for a
  “Zionist or
  Israeli background” to ensure a fair and impartial
  jury of her Jew-hating peers.

• 
  
  Ranting about 9/11
  Israel conspiracies during voir dire.

• 
  
  
  Blurting out “I feel sorry for
  you” to the witness in front of the jury before
  
  
  being led out of
  the courtroom again.

Siddiqui`s defense
team, funded in part by the Pakistani government,
asserts that Lady al-Qaida is so mentally ga-ga that she
should not be allowed to take the witness stand.
Bleeding-heart human-rights groups have dutifully
rallied around Siddiqui. She`s Mumia Abu-Jamal in a
burqa. Indeed, her supporters have launched their own

“Free Aafia”

campaign. But two government-retained psychiatrists,
working independently, determined last year that
Siddiqui`s so-called symptoms of mental illness were
attributed to “malingering” and
“manipulation.” The judge in the case concluded that
she is competent and understands full well the charges
against her.

The Crazy Jihadi
tactic is in perfect sync with the al-Qaida training
manual advising its operatives to claim victimhood
status if arrested and put on trial. This act is also in
keeping with a long tradition of terror defendants
invoking the insanity card — from
“20th hijacker”
Zacarias Moussaoui (whose lawyers chalked up his
mass-murdering ambitions

to a traumatic
childhood)
to Fort Hood shooter

Nidal Hasan (whose
defense will

undoubtedly play up his lonely bachelorhood).

To make matters
worse, the New
York Post reported this week that an
“unidentified man
in a white headdress”
mouthed an obscenity at the Siddiqui trial and cocked his finger like a
gun at two jurors. The jurors were let go; it remains
unclear whether the thug in white headdress will be
charged and what relation, if any, he has to Siddiqui.

Would you answer a
jury summons knowing you could end up sitting in front
of a jihadi sympathizer on the loose who is mentally
painting a target on your forehead? And would you trust
the White House ringmasters and Justice Department
terror-coddlers to protect you from harm?

These suspects
belong in controlled military tribunals, not federal
courtrooms that are being turned into al-Qaida P.R.
platforms. The O.J. Simpson spectacle of a smirking
murder suspect, preening defense attorneys, a
showboating judge and the judicial process run amok on
cable TV 24/7 was bad enough. The
1993 World Trade Center bombing trial,
which gave the bin Laden network a multimillion-dollar
tax-subsidized legal team, free translation services,
personal dry-cleaning services, race-baiting defense
witnesses and access to information that was allegedly
used by jihadists to evade surveillance, was even worse.

The specter of 10,
15, 20 Siddiqui-style courtroom carnivals — at a cost
of at least $1 billion to taxpayers — threatens to
throw our civilian court system into complete chaos.
America can`t afford to clown around with national
security.

COPYRIGHT

CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.

Michelle Malkin

[email
her]
is the author of


Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists,
Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our
Shores.
Click


here
for Peter Brimelow`s review. Click



here
for Michelle Malkin`s website. Michelle Malkin
is also author of




Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild
and the just-released Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks & Cronies.