Holder and the Rule of Law

Holder begins to show some stones:

Attorney General Eric Holder announced the decision Friday to bring Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to trial in a courtroom barely a thousand yards from the site of the World Trade Center’s twin towers they are accused of destroying.

Trying the men in civilian court will bar evidence obtained under duress and complicate a case where anything short of slam-dunk convictions will empower President Barack Obama’s critics. U.S. civilian courts prohibit evidence obtained through coercion, and a number of detainees were questioned using harsh methods some call torture.

Holder insisted both the court system and the untainted evidence against the five men are strong enough to deliver a guilty verdict and the penalty he expects to seek: a death sentence for the deaths of nearly 3,000 people who were killed when four hijacked jetliners slammed into the towers, the Pentagon and a field in western Pennsylvania.

“After eight years of delay, those allegedly responsible for the attacks of September the 11th will finally face justice. They will be brought to New York – to New York,” Holder repeated for emphasis, “to answer for their alleged crimes in a courthouse just blocks away from where the twin towers once stood.”

Holder said he decided to bring Mohammed and the other four before a civilian court rather than a military commission because of the nature of the undisclosed evidence against them, because the 9/11 victims were mostly civilians and because the attacks took place on U.S. soil.

Of course, not everyone thinks our 200+ year-old legal system is up to the task:

GOP House Leader John Boehner, condemning Obama’s decision to bring Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to New York for trial, yesterday:

The Obama Administration’s irresponsible decision to prosecute the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks in New York City puts the interests of liberal special interest groups before the safety and security of the American people.

As Greenwald responds:

This is literally true:  the Right’s reaction to yesterday’s announcement —we’re too afraid to allow trials and due process in our country — is the textbook definition of “surrendering to terrorists.”  It’s the same fear they’ve been spewing for years.  As always, the Right’s tough-guy leaders wallow in a combination of pitiful fear and cynical manipulation of the fear of their followers.  Indeed, it’s hard to find any group of people on the globe who exude this sort of weakness and fear more than the American Right.

Amen to that Glenn.  These gate-keepers of patriotism once again demonstrate their lack of faith in the American rule-of-law they pretend to hold so dear.  Honestly, the terrorists could not have hoped for a better reaction – leaders eager to sell out American ideals for some false misconception that selling out these ideals is the only way to protect them.

Next job for Holder is to step up and deal with the rest of the Guantanamo prisoners.  In the spirit of redundancy:

I have discussed preventative detention policies at length, so I will not rehash the particulars of Guantanamo – the many prisoners rounded up not on the battlefields, but because they are political opponents of our “allies.” The fact that the longest amount of time someone can be held without charges in any other western democracy is 28 days (U.K.).  The fact that these prisoners are not afforded access to lawyers, or contact with family members.

I don’t dismiss the lingering effect of 9/11.  Our leaders need to do everything in their power to prevent future attacks.  However, Americans should respect the refractive nature of policies such as rendition, torture, and preventative detention.  There is not a finite amount of terrorists in the world. As long you give them reason to feel oppressed and hated, the crazy, manipulative, End-of-Days Muslim extremists will be able to find unemployed, alienated youth to carry out murder on their behalf.  Selling out constitutional principles is not only un-American – it’s unsafe

8 years.  Charge or release.

The Sixth Amendment By Any Other Name

True to his word during the campaign, it looks like President Obama will get the Guantanamo Bay prison facility closed by some time early next year.  That’s good.  However, despite this appropriate course of action, this move seems mostly symbolic.  The President refuses to discontinue the incredibly un-American Bush policy of “preventative detention.”

The Obama administration has decided not to seek legislation to establish a new system of preventive detention to hold terrorism suspects and will instead rely on a 2001 congressional resolution authorizing military force against al-Qaeda and the Taliban to continue to detain people indefinitely and without charge, according to administration officials.

In case you forgot, the 6th Amendment reads:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district where in the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

I have discussed preventative detention policies at length, so I will not rehash the particulars of Guantanamo – the many prisoners rounded up not on the battlefields, but because they are political opponents of our “allies.” The fact that the longest amount of time someone can be held without charges in any other western democracy is 28 days (U.K.).  The fact that these prisoners are not afforded access to lawyers, or contact with family members.

Remember the (appropriate, yet hypocritical) indignation in this country when the Iranian-American journalist was held in Iran for 3 months? Maybe this high-powered judgment should be turned inward.  I saw Madeleine Albright speak last night at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.  Addressing the topic of torture and related constitutional issues, she said, “America is an exceptional country.  It’s doesn’t mean we should make exceptions.”

I don’t dismiss the lingering effect of 9/11.  Our leaders need to do everything in their power to prevent future attacks.  However, Americans should respect the refractive nature of policies such as rendition, torture, and preventative detention.  There is not a finite amount of terrorists in the world. As long you give them reason to feel oppressed and hated, the crazy, manipulative, End-of-Days Muslim extremists will be able to find unemployed, alienated youth to carry out murder on their behalf.  Selling out constitutional principles is not only un-American – it’s unsafe.