Engardio, Joel. “9/11 Families Ask for Justice.” www.aclu.org. American Civil Liberties Union, 13 November 2009. Web. 27 November 2009 <http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/911-families-ask-true-justice>.
Watch This Video
The American Civil Liberties Union produced and is promoting a video that features three family members of 9/11 terrorist victims. In the video, the family members are speaking out in support of federal trials for terrorist suspects. The arguments they put forth include wanting to make sure the right people are convicted, wanting to make sure judges make a decision based on the Constitution, and wanting to put an end to lengthy detainments of prisoners without letting them know the charges against them. As one woman whose son died in the twin towers puts it, “it doesn’t honor him that we violate our Constitution in retaliation for what happened on September 11.” The opinion of the American Civil Liberties Union, also known as the ACLU, is also expressed that military tribunals are an illegitimate option.
The video is worth watching because the voices of the people who were most effected by the 9/11 attacks should be heard when one is considering whether trying the suspects in a civilian court should be an option. The arguments they put forth seem logical, but imply that military tribunals are unconstitutional without giving any evidence to support that idea. The claim of the American Civil Liberties Union that families of 9/11 victims support the Senate’s decision to allow federal trials for suspected terrorists is somewhat weakened by the fact that out of the thousands of families of 9/11 victims, only three appear on the video.
