Cenk Uygur Bizarrely Bellows: Ghailani Trial Shows 'Our Justice System Worked'

Published: 11/19/2010 4:18 PM ET

While most of the country took a collective gasp over the verdict in the trial of al-Qaeda terrorist Ahmed Ghailani, Cenk Uygur spun the disconcerting outcome as a success story for the Obama administration.

Anchoring the 3:00 P.M. EDT hour of MSNBC's live news coverage today, the liberal host of "The Young Turks" boldly and bizarrely proclaimed "our justice system worked."

After accusing congressional Republicans of being "scared of terrorists," implying that terrorists who want to kill us aren't worth fussing over, Uygur dismissed the notion that acquitting Ghailani on more than 280 charges exposed the shortcomings of trying suspected terrorists in civilian courts.

"So what?" bellowed an incredulous Uygur. "We just gave this guy, who we believe helped to kill 224 people, a fair trial."

erhaps someone forgot to inform Uygur that Ghailani was not convicted on a single murder charge, only conspiracy to blow up government buildings in an attack on two United States embassies in 1998.

Later in the "Cenk's Take" segment, Uygur intimated that proponents of military tribunals want to remake the American criminal justice system in the image of Saudi Arabia: "We must assume anyone we have ever detained for any reason is 100 percent guilty because while you weren't looking we renamed the country Saudi Arabia."

In contrast to Uygur, MSNBC.com reported that the verdict "deals blow to Obama Gitmo plan" and ABCNews.com noted a growing chorus of bipartisan opposition to the use of civilian courts to prosecute suspected terrorists.

Only in Uygur's warped sense of reality, in which Barack Obama is more conservative than Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush is a war criminal, does the near-acquittal of a heinous terrorist who murdered more than 200 people represent a success story in the War on Terror.

-Alex Fitzsimmons is a News Analysis intern at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.