SYNDICATED COLUMN: America on Trial
Right-Wingers Have Reasons to Worry About Trying KSM
One of my favorite books is by a conservative. Every American should read Stephen L. Carter's 1996 primer on ethics, "Integrity." Carter writes that integrity requires doing the right thing, "even at personal cost." In the world of politics, the example of Al Gore's father comes to my mind: a senator from Tennessee, Al Gore, Sr. openly opposed segregation and the Vietnam War even though he knew his outspokenness would cause him to lose his 1970 reelection campaign.
Faced with the choice between integrity and expediency, Republicans are taking the low road. Principles? Only when they're convenient. Never mind the Constitution, the Geneva Conventions or common decency—on the question of what to do about POWs rotting away at Guantánamo Bay concentration camp, right-wingers' concerns are purely practical.
We are talking, of course, about Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in federal court in Manhattan, within walking distance of the World Trade Center Memorial Hole, which marks America's resilience.
Note: I don't refer to Mohammed as "9/11 mastermind." Unlike most Americans, I don't believe that something is true just because the government says it. Until a jury and the media examine the facts, we have no idea whether Mohammed is guilty of anything. As far as we know, he could be nothing more than a poster child for Pakistani bed-head. Moreover, my distrust multiplies in direct proportion to the number times a suspect has been waterboarded (in Mohammed's case, at least 183).
Anyway, it's interesting to watch "law and order" conservatives like Rudy Giuliani talk away basic legal rights like habeas corpus. "[Mohammad] should be tried in a military tribunal," Giuliani says, "He is a war criminal. This is an act of war." No, Mr. Mayor, he's not. And this is no war. Had an actual war been declared, a nation-state would have attacked us. 9/11 was a criminal act, and a terrible one: mass murder, air piracy and property damage. Until Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is tried and convicted in a court of law, however he is an alleged criminal, innocent until proven guilty. Where'd this Giuliani guy go to law school, Wal-Mart?
Among Giuliani's other worries: "security concerns." "Just wait and see how much New York City spends on this in order to protect him," he warns. While we're at it, think of how much money the government could save by eliminating the criminal justice system! Why not just let the cops shoot anyone they want?
The attorney general's decision should be commended. He was correct to act independently, without consulting with Obama. It is a long overdue course correction for a government still careening down the road to moral illegitimacy. Still, Holder's pseudo-conservative critics—wouldn't a real conservative favor strict adherence to the law, practical concerns like the cost of security be damned?—have good reasons to worry about how the trial will unfold, if and when it actually comes to pass.
For example, Republican Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan fears accused terrorists will exploit their trials. He worries they will "disrupt it and make it a circus and allow them to use it as a platform to push their ideology." Well, yeah. In political proceedings, the defendants always try to put the state on trial. Unfortunately, the military, CIA and Bush Administration made that outcome inevitable by refusing to treat 9/11 as a crime. Mohammed and his comrades ought to have been turned over to The Hague, where the dull murmur of transcription machines has a way of sucking all the drama out of the most political of trials.
John "Torture Memo" Yoo frets in The Wall Street Journal that "KSM and his co-defendants will enjoy the benefits and rights that the Constitution accords to citizens and resident aliens—including the right to demand that the government produce in open court all of the information that it has on them, and how it got it." Though self-serving, it's an excellent point. The whole sordid story of America's post-9/11 torture program will be internationally televised.
At Mohammed's trial the whole world will hear how U.S. soldiers and intelligence agents stabbed, suffocated and sodomized detainees, including kids, most of whom were later determined to be innocent and set free. So much for the Obama effect; traveling overseas is going to suck for Americans from now on.
The government could have avoided this unpleasantness by, oh, not torturing. And, when we citizens heard and read and watched reports that our government was torturing, we could have racked up some integrity points by taking to the streets by the million to demand that it stop. But we had football and "Battlestar Galactica" and reality shows to watch instead. Oh, well.
Now it's time for America to take its lumps. Even if that means putting KSM on a plane back to Pakistan and watching him arriving home to a hero's welcome, that's too bad. Release is how a judge and jury typically treats a man who has been tortured while awaiting custody.
What does Stephen L. Carter think about this? I don't know, but I'd like to think that (as a conservative) he would agree with me. Integrity requires one to accept responsibility for one's actions.
(Ted Rall is the author, with Pablo G. Callejo, of the new graphic memoir "The Year of Loving Dangerously." He is also the author of the 2002 graphic travelogue "To Afghanistan and Back.")
COPYRIGHT 2009 TED RALL
One of my favorite books is by a conservative. Every American should read Stephen L. Carter's 1996 primer on ethics, "Integrity." Carter writes that integrity requires doing the right thing, "even at personal cost." In the world of politics, the example of Al Gore's father comes to my mind: a senator from Tennessee, Al Gore, Sr. openly opposed segregation and the Vietnam War even though he knew his outspokenness would cause him to lose his 1970 reelection campaign.
Faced with the choice between integrity and expediency, Republicans are taking the low road. Principles? Only when they're convenient. Never mind the Constitution, the Geneva Conventions or common decency—on the question of what to do about POWs rotting away at Guantánamo Bay concentration camp, right-wingers' concerns are purely practical.
We are talking, of course, about Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in federal court in Manhattan, within walking distance of the World Trade Center Memorial Hole, which marks America's resilience.
Note: I don't refer to Mohammed as "9/11 mastermind." Unlike most Americans, I don't believe that something is true just because the government says it. Until a jury and the media examine the facts, we have no idea whether Mohammed is guilty of anything. As far as we know, he could be nothing more than a poster child for Pakistani bed-head. Moreover, my distrust multiplies in direct proportion to the number times a suspect has been waterboarded (in Mohammed's case, at least 183).
Anyway, it's interesting to watch "law and order" conservatives like Rudy Giuliani talk away basic legal rights like habeas corpus. "[Mohammad] should be tried in a military tribunal," Giuliani says, "He is a war criminal. This is an act of war." No, Mr. Mayor, he's not. And this is no war. Had an actual war been declared, a nation-state would have attacked us. 9/11 was a criminal act, and a terrible one: mass murder, air piracy and property damage. Until Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is tried and convicted in a court of law, however he is an alleged criminal, innocent until proven guilty. Where'd this Giuliani guy go to law school, Wal-Mart?
Among Giuliani's other worries: "security concerns." "Just wait and see how much New York City spends on this in order to protect him," he warns. While we're at it, think of how much money the government could save by eliminating the criminal justice system! Why not just let the cops shoot anyone they want?
The attorney general's decision should be commended. He was correct to act independently, without consulting with Obama. It is a long overdue course correction for a government still careening down the road to moral illegitimacy. Still, Holder's pseudo-conservative critics—wouldn't a real conservative favor strict adherence to the law, practical concerns like the cost of security be damned?—have good reasons to worry about how the trial will unfold, if and when it actually comes to pass.
For example, Republican Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan fears accused terrorists will exploit their trials. He worries they will "disrupt it and make it a circus and allow them to use it as a platform to push their ideology." Well, yeah. In political proceedings, the defendants always try to put the state on trial. Unfortunately, the military, CIA and Bush Administration made that outcome inevitable by refusing to treat 9/11 as a crime. Mohammed and his comrades ought to have been turned over to The Hague, where the dull murmur of transcription machines has a way of sucking all the drama out of the most political of trials.
John "Torture Memo" Yoo frets in The Wall Street Journal that "KSM and his co-defendants will enjoy the benefits and rights that the Constitution accords to citizens and resident aliens—including the right to demand that the government produce in open court all of the information that it has on them, and how it got it." Though self-serving, it's an excellent point. The whole sordid story of America's post-9/11 torture program will be internationally televised.
At Mohammed's trial the whole world will hear how U.S. soldiers and intelligence agents stabbed, suffocated and sodomized detainees, including kids, most of whom were later determined to be innocent and set free. So much for the Obama effect; traveling overseas is going to suck for Americans from now on.
The government could have avoided this unpleasantness by, oh, not torturing. And, when we citizens heard and read and watched reports that our government was torturing, we could have racked up some integrity points by taking to the streets by the million to demand that it stop. But we had football and "Battlestar Galactica" and reality shows to watch instead. Oh, well.
Now it's time for America to take its lumps. Even if that means putting KSM on a plane back to Pakistan and watching him arriving home to a hero's welcome, that's too bad. Release is how a judge and jury typically treats a man who has been tortured while awaiting custody.
What does Stephen L. Carter think about this? I don't know, but I'd like to think that (as a conservative) he would agree with me. Integrity requires one to accept responsibility for one's actions.
(Ted Rall is the author, with Pablo G. Callejo, of the new graphic memoir "The Year of Loving Dangerously." He is also the author of the 2002 graphic travelogue "To Afghanistan and Back.")
COPYRIGHT 2009 TED RALL
posted by Ted Rall at
1:50 PM
6 Comments:
I would commend Holder as well if it weren't for the fact that he's only deciding to hold trials for some suspects, military tribunals for others and the rest indefinite imprisonment. Not to mention the fact that when Holder was getting grilled by congressmen, he admitted that even if one of these suspects were acquitted and all charges were dropped, he would still have that person detained. Even worse than having two systems of justice is having no justice at all and this is what Holder is doing. The whole thing is nothing more than theater of the absurd.
I was thinking something similar. In this country we let crooks go cause the stupid cop didn't read them their Miranda Rights. What do we do to a man who we tortured and threatened his family? Maybe this should be what Obama calls a "teachable moment." KSM gets released after a jury hears about the torture and other abuses by the Bushbots. Obama gets humiliated and his approval rating drops to 25%. Obama should realize that Bush caused this and demand investigations into Bush's crimes.
But no that's not going to happen, Obama and Holder will make sure KSM and the others are found guilty and get executed. Meanwhile, Bush will die a rich and free man.
Looking forward to the kangaroo court; I'll bet KSM gets a public defender told to say very specific things so the trial goes smoothly.
On the odd chance he does get acquitted, you really think they'll just let him go back to Pakistan? Nuh uh. If he gets a flight anywhere, he'll probably be flown to Bagram never to be heard from again.
As they say on the Fafblog, we're dealing with Schrodinger's Guilt here: As long as the jails remain closed to oversight, there's a good chance these people are still guilty, but if we open them up there's a chance that they might not be guilty, which is why we cannot allow anyone to leave. Ever.
Between the mindless Fox conservatrons and the mindless HuffPo leftists, you're a voice in the wilderness. Thanks again.
Ted,
Although you oppose the war in Afghanistan which is already a done deal and it is too late to do anything about it, it seems you are continuously itching and harping for an attack on Pakistan which I find very strange and raising many questions.!!??
Ted, who are you really?! Are you a "in the closet" necon.??!!
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