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Do IT this week: Layering
Who's afraid of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?
By Michael Douglas
Beacon Journal editorial page editor
Published on Sunday, Nov 22, 2009
Barack Obama promised change. Thus, in his first official act as president, he signed executive orders establishing a one-year deadline for closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay and for halting the use of torture and extraordinary renditions. He wanted to break from the dark chapters of the Bush years, when the White House neglected first principles and played to fear.
On Wednesday, Eric Holder reinforced the Obama theme during an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The attorney general faced a grilling, Republicans, especially, examining his decision to prosecute Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others behind the Sept. 11 attacks in federal court in New York City. Holder deftly attempted to turn the tables.
''We need not cower in the face of this enemy,'' he argued. ''Our institutions are strong, our infrastructure is ready, our resolve is firm, and our people are ready.''
At another juncture, he stressed: ''I'm not scared of what Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has to say at trial. And no one else needs to be afraid either.''
Sen. Jeff Sessions understood precisely what Holder was doing. The Alabama Republican didn't like the recasting of the powerful factor of fear. ''It's not cowering in fear of terrorists,'' he returned, ''to decide the best way for this case to be tried is to be tried by a military commission.''
Sessions had company. Earlier in the week, John Boehner of Ohio, the House minority leader, warned: ''The possibility that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-conspirators could be found 'not guilty' due to some legal technicality just blocks from Ground Zero should give every American pause.''
At the committee hearing, Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, snapped: ''I don't know how you can make a statement that failure to convict is not an option, when you've got juries in this country.'' Yikes! Juries! Now the sovereign people cannot be trusted? Grassley raised the specter of the O.J. Simpson trial, as if the circumstances even are remotely similar.
John Kyl got ugly. The Arizona Republican pursued a line of questioning that suggested terrorist sympathizers work in the Justice Department.
These and other performances provided fresh reminders of the consequences of undue fear. No one questions the task of countering the likes of Osama bin Laden. Critical is achieving the right balance. The failure to do so produced Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, torture and military commissions, rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court and many military prosecutors.
The country's reputation has been tarnished and its influence diminished. Charges of hypocrisy have stuck. Keep in mind amid the dire warnings about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed turning a civilian trial into a propaganda vehicle: Guantanamo and the rest of the excesses have been prime recruiting tools for Islamic extremists.
The Bush White House devised an off-the-shelf mechanism to deliver the desired result. What Holder conveyed is that the new team favors the concept of trust, confidence in the legal system as it is, its principles and procedures.
Admittedly, the Obama White House has stumbled along the way. The president announced last week that he won't meet the January deadline for closing Guantanamo. The administration opened the door to fear-mongering and delay when it requested $80 million from Congress to support the closure. Many lawmakers jumped to reject the prospect of imprisoning detainees on American soil.
Hard to get other countries to cooperate in taking detainees when they hear such talk.
The White House also wants to keep in place military commissions, albeit improved and limited in their use. Why not tap the much-respected Uniform Code of Military Justice?
If anything, the continued use of military commissions should cause Republicans to ease their scorn. It hasn't, and neither has the actual experience of prosecuting terrorists in civilian courts. Those who masterminded the first World Trade Center attack were convicted in federal court and remain in federal prison. The same goes for Richard Reid, the ''shoe bomber,'' and Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged ''20th hijacker'' in the Sept. 11 attacks. (The Bush team eventually opted for federal court in the Moussaoui case — triggering little outrage from Republicans.)
Moussaoui ranted, causing hardly a ripple. Those outbursts perhaps came to minds as Eric Holder asserted to the committee: ''I have every confidence that the nation and the world will see him [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed] for the coward that he is.''
Put another way, the choice of federal court isn't about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. It's about us.
The concern shouldn't be so much a ''technicality'' carrying the day or ensuring the correct outcome. Rather, the proud assertion should be: This is the way we do things, devoted to the rule of law and all that goes with it, including procedural protections driven by the ideal of liberty.
Listen to the Republican senators, and you would think the attorney general had veered far from the mainstream. Yet a week earlier, through the work of The Constitution Project, a collection of former lawmakers, diplomats, military officers, federal judges and prosecutors, national security experts and bar leaders joined in issuing ''Beyond Guantanamo: A Bipartisan Declaration.'' They called for the federal government ''to rely upon our established, traditional system of justice.'' They insisted national security can be preserved ''without resorting to sweeping and radical departures.''
They aren't afraid.
Douglas is the Beacon Journal editorial page editor. He can be reached at 330-996-3514, or emailed at mdouglas@thebeaconjournal.com.
Barack Obama promised change. Thus, in his first official act as president, he signed executive orders establishing a one-year deadline for closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay and for halting the use of torture and extraordinary renditions. He wanted to break from the dark chapters of the Bush years, when the White House neglected first principles and played to fear.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Akron, OH
Posted 06:20 AM, 11/22/2009
hmmm, no mention of Holder's law firm where he was a Senior Partner?
The only logical reason that I can come up for moving this to the "media capital of the world" is to be able to have an ongoing distraction as the Administration tries to force it's agenda through.
ProChoice, OH
Posted 09:57 AM, 11/22/2009
Bravo to Eric Holder. Like it or not, EVERY Criminal has the right to a TRIAL. This is what our Judicial System is based on, LAWS, and that needs followed.
Posted 10:55 PM, 11/23/2009
ProChoiceLiberal, I think they are a little more than common criminals.
Obama says he wants to show the world how fair our justice system is. He then tells us as fact how these "criminals" are allready guilty and will be excecuted. How fair does the world view that?
Richfield, OH
Posted 04:30 PM, 12/09/2009
Holder is a joke. These combatants have no right to trial in the US.
Also, Holder let the guilty Black Panthers go and has failed to investigate ACORN. He is selective which is basically they way fascists work.
