Give Ashcroft a Break

Did we just say that?

Currently the Senate is in the process of grilling various Justice Department officials over the recent announcement by the Bush Administration that terror suspects would face a military tribunal should they be lucky enough to be captured alive. Much of this animosity on the Senate’s part seems to be due more to the President’s failure to consult with the group of prima donnas before making the decision rather than any fear of the neutering of due-process by the White House.

 Such a decision to try these suspects in military courts makes sense for the following reasons. First, there’s precedent – which is the true basis of Anglo-Saxon law. President Lincoln sanctioned these tribunals, as did President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In FDR’s case, the tribunals were used to try, convict and execute German saboteurs who arrived in the USA via U-boat during World War 2. Add to this the Nuremberg Trials of 1946, as well as the recent trials of Bosnian and Rwandan war criminals, and the case for precedent becomes stronger, justifying such tribunals during a time of war. Finally, federal trials would expose American citizens – civilians, politicians, police and federal agents – to immense risk. And should Bin-Laden be captured alive and held for trial, what would stop anyone from holding a city hostage to his release by threatening to detonate a nuclear device?

But is the USA really at war?

While things may be returning to normal, anyone who’s gotten near a plane or handles mail know that things are not. Al-Qaeda materials regularly refer to the United States as “the enemy”, and it’s terrorist actions as “military operations”. In the eyes of the terrorist, there is no distinction between civilian and soldier. Your elderly grandmother is as much a target as one of those well armed United States Marines one sees in the newspaper. In fact, given the choice between killing an elderly lady and a well-armed United States Marine, the terrorist would naturally gravitate towards killing the former since it’s much easier then attacking a so-called “hard target” that a marine presents. Therefore America is at war with an enemy which has declared war upon it. During previous wars the right of Habeas Corpus and other guaranteed by the Constitution were suspended.  Previous administrations as well as the Supreme Court which ruled on the legality of military tribunals in 1942, realized that the US Constitution, while designed to preserve freedom, was not a suicide pact for its citizens open to abuse by foreigners bent on their destruction.

This magazine endorses the tactics employed by Attorney General John Ashcroft and commends the Justice Department officials who are having to face a group of people who bolted out of town after the first whiff of anthrax in October.  

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