A Recipe for Disaster

A Recipe for Disaster

By DAVID B. RIVKIN, JR. and LEE A. CASEY
March 17, 2006; Page A12

Regarding the Justice Department's death penalty case against Zacarias Moussaoui, presiding Judge Leonie M. Brinkema said, "I don't think in the annals of criminal law there has ever been a case with as many significant problems." It is difficult to disagree.

While Judge Brinkema allowed prosecutors to press their case without aviation-related evidence tainted by other government lawyers, everything that could go wrong with the case has gone wrong -- from the initial circus atmosphere as Moussaoui, an al Qaeda operative who was part of the 9/11 attack conspiracy, attempted to "defend" himself while the court-appointed lawyers embarked on a fishing expedition for classified information, to the latest row over witnesses improperly coached by a Transportation Security Administration lawyer. The government's chances to secure a death penalty may now have evaporated. Moreover, post-sentencing, if a higher court in a habeas corpus proceeding determines that any of Judge Brinkema's decisions constituted material error, the government may have to begin again; or, worse, Moussaoui -- who has pleaded guilty -- may go free. If nothing else, this sad spectacle proves beyond a shadow of doubt that President Bush's decision to treat the 9/11 attacks as an armed attack, meriting the use of military instruments and the laws of war, was correct.

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As time passes, however, this decision is increasingly challenged in the U.S. and abroad -- especially Europe, where homegrown terrorist movements are well known and many consider 9/11 to be a crime rather than an act of war. But deploying the criminal justice system, instead of the armed forces, against al Qaeda would have meant defeat -- at least if victory is defined as protecting Americans from further attacks. This is because the criminal justice system is reactive. It does not prevent crime; it punishes crime in the expectation of deterring further crime. When the wrongdoer is beyond deterrence, whether for ideological, religious or medical reasons, the system breaks down.

More @ http://tinyurl.com/hztdb WSJ

Personally I don't believe that non-US citizens have the same rights as citizens in regards to US law. I know the USSC has ruled otherwise, however they have been out of the loops before on many things. I fail to see the advantage of being a citizen if non-citizens are going to be afforded all the rights a citizen has. (It is not like that in most other countries)

Zacarias Moussaoui Should have been hauled before a 'special tribunal' given a fair trial and then fairly shot. Maybe we should do this with the 'home grown' terrorists so that the field could be maintained on an even keel as it were. (Wouldn't' want to be accused by the Hague of giving preferential treatment to American nationals!)