And Now This
I have been fussing for about 24 hours now about this announcement in yesterday's NY Times.
Military prosecutors have decided to seek the death penalty for six Guantánamo detainees who are to be charged with central roles in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, government officials who have been briefed on the charges said Sunday.
Now, I am unalterably opposed to the death penalty. It makes about as much sense as a frustrated mother smacking her son across the chops for smacking his little sister across the chops, and then saying, "Hitting is bad!" At the same time, I know a lot of decent folks who believe the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for certain particularly heinous crimes, and while I still disagree with them, I certainly can appreciate their reasoning. I also can admit that the tragedy of 9/11 was caused by a number of people engaged in unspeakably evil acts, so that under my friends' guidelines, those who conspired to commit these acts deserve harsh punishment, even death.
However, there are supposed to be safeguards in place for defendants, all defendants, in our judicial system, and when it comes to the detainees in Guantanamo Bay and the "black prisons," none of those safeguards have received even a nod from our government.
Detainees have been held for years without charges having been filed. They have not been able to contest their detention because Congress didn't think they should have the right of habeas corpus. Many are there because of "confessions" obtained under torture, which the Attorney General refuses to find illegal. They will have to proceed to trial without being able to see the evidence against them and without being able to confront the witnesses who put them there. The prosecution to this point won't even share exculpatory evidence with their attorneys. And, to top it off, there is even some question whether their trials will be held in secret. How does this fit with the American tradition of due process, of the presumption of innocence?
It doesn't.
But wait, there's more, as one former military defense lawyer points out:
Tom Fleener, an Army Reserve major who was until recently a military defense lawyer at Guantánamo, said that bringing death penalty cases in the military commission system would bog down the untested system. He noted that many legal questions remain unanswered at Guantánamo, including how much of the trials will be conducted in closed, secret proceedings; how the military judges will handle evidence obtained by interrogators’ coercive tactics; and whether the judges will require experienced death-penalty lawyers to take part in such cases.
In all likelihood, these trials will be the first actual trials under the military commission system. Even if "experienced death-penalty lawyers" take part in these cases, they will be rookies under the new system in which even basic procedures haven't been ironed out. None of the defense attorneys will be experienced in a system that, by all accounts, appears to have designed by and for the prosecution.
The Guantanamo Bay Military Commission system reeks of the show trials of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. It is little better than the "disappearing" tactics of last generation's Latin American dictators. And this is what we are presenting to the world as an example of American justice.
I am deeply, deeply ashamed of this nation.
Military prosecutors have decided to seek the death penalty for six Guantánamo detainees who are to be charged with central roles in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, government officials who have been briefed on the charges said Sunday.
Now, I am unalterably opposed to the death penalty. It makes about as much sense as a frustrated mother smacking her son across the chops for smacking his little sister across the chops, and then saying, "Hitting is bad!" At the same time, I know a lot of decent folks who believe the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for certain particularly heinous crimes, and while I still disagree with them, I certainly can appreciate their reasoning. I also can admit that the tragedy of 9/11 was caused by a number of people engaged in unspeakably evil acts, so that under my friends' guidelines, those who conspired to commit these acts deserve harsh punishment, even death.
However, there are supposed to be safeguards in place for defendants, all defendants, in our judicial system, and when it comes to the detainees in Guantanamo Bay and the "black prisons," none of those safeguards have received even a nod from our government.
Detainees have been held for years without charges having been filed. They have not been able to contest their detention because Congress didn't think they should have the right of habeas corpus. Many are there because of "confessions" obtained under torture, which the Attorney General refuses to find illegal. They will have to proceed to trial without being able to see the evidence against them and without being able to confront the witnesses who put them there. The prosecution to this point won't even share exculpatory evidence with their attorneys. And, to top it off, there is even some question whether their trials will be held in secret. How does this fit with the American tradition of due process, of the presumption of innocence?
It doesn't.
But wait, there's more, as one former military defense lawyer points out:
Tom Fleener, an Army Reserve major who was until recently a military defense lawyer at Guantánamo, said that bringing death penalty cases in the military commission system would bog down the untested system. He noted that many legal questions remain unanswered at Guantánamo, including how much of the trials will be conducted in closed, secret proceedings; how the military judges will handle evidence obtained by interrogators’ coercive tactics; and whether the judges will require experienced death-penalty lawyers to take part in such cases.
In all likelihood, these trials will be the first actual trials under the military commission system. Even if "experienced death-penalty lawyers" take part in these cases, they will be rookies under the new system in which even basic procedures haven't been ironed out. None of the defense attorneys will be experienced in a system that, by all accounts, appears to have designed by and for the prosecution.
The Guantanamo Bay Military Commission system reeks of the show trials of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. It is little better than the "disappearing" tactics of last generation's Latin American dictators. And this is what we are presenting to the world as an example of American justice.
I am deeply, deeply ashamed of this nation.
Labels: Guantanamo Bay, habeas corpus, Justice
posted by Diane at 3:35 AM
1 Comments:
There are many reasons why this announcement stinks. For starters, it seems highly unlikely that the accused had much, if anything, to do with the events of 9/11 and are most likely being used as patsies to help make the official story stick.
Many thoughtful and qualified people have reached the uncomfortable conclusion that 9/11 was an inside job. See:
http://www.ifthisbetreason.com/?p=881
If the inside job theory is proven -- and the available evidence both supports that theory and demolishes the official story -- then the perpetrators must include individuals and cabals within the US defence and intelligence establishments. Anyone now in Gitmo is unlikely to have been able to manage the stand down of US military forces or the meticulous prepositioning of explosives or the remarkably prescient flood of insider trades that enriched so many accredited (and identifiable) futures traders. Or the suppression or planting of evidence and general obfuscation in the media (see NIST, FEMA, FBI, BBC, etc.)
The prospect of show trials, engineered by the real masterminds of 9/11 to implicate others and divert attention from themselves, makes this sorry spectacle only the more disgusting. You are right to be deeply, deeply ashamed of this nation and, more specifically, its elected (and unelected) representatives. John McCain and Rudy Guiliani are but the most prominent of the many politicians who are fully aware of what happened but have been frightened into silence or have gone over to the dark side.
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