Tom over at The New Editor has a post up regarding Andrew Sullivan’s quote of the day, which is this winner:
“That’s how this group of Bush followers thinks America is supposed to work. If you are a U.S. citizen, the President can unilaterally order you abducted and imprisoned; does not have to charge you with any crime; can block you from speaking with anyone, including a lawyer; can keep you incarcerated indefinitely (meaning forever); and can deny you the right to any judicial review of your imprisonment or any mechanism for challenging the accuracy of the accusations. And oh – while it would be nice if we could preserve all of that abstract lawyer nonsense about the right to a jury trial and all that, we’re really scared that Al Qaeda is going to kill us, so we can’t,” – Glenn Greenwald, on his blog yesterday.
Oooooooook then. If you go to the Glenn’s blog you will see he is referring to Jose Padilla, the Al-Qaeda member arrested and held without charge for 3 years. It appears Glenn is upset that our enemy isn’t given a speedy trial as if he is a common criminal, which he is not.
In fact a recent report states he may have been higher up on the food chain inside Al-Qaeda then originally thought:
Federal investigators say they have evidence that former Chicago street gang member Jose Padilla was a higher ranking member of Al Qaeda than first thought.
Four years ago this month when Jose Padilla was arrested at O’Hare Airport, federal agents considered him a Chicago street gang member who had been recruited by Al Qaeda terrorists to scout potential American targets, but now U.S. prosecutors believe Padilla was operating at a much higher level than just an advance man for Al Qaeda.
Jose Padilla was not just a Chicago street gang stooge as some in law enforcement portrayed him at the time of his arrest. Federal authorities say evidence now shows that Padilla had had risen in Al Qaeda’s ranks to have personal relationships with the top planners of the September 11th attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.
Padilla has told authorities that his direct Al Qaeda supervisor was Ammar al-Baluchi who obtained flight simulators that the 9/11 hijackers used in training. According to Padilla, Baluchi was the right-hand man of Khalid Sheihk Mohammed—considered the architect of the 9/11 attacks.
In documents filed during the recent death penalty hearing for Al Qaeda terrorist Zacharias Moussaoui, Moussaoui described Baluci as a “key travel and financial facilitator for the Sept. 11 hijackers.”
Padilla’s connection to Al Qaeda provided his marching orders as well. Federal agents say Padilla has told them that Baluchi gave him $10,000 cash before flying from the Middle East to O’Hare, provided travel documents, gave him a U.S. cell phone and an email address to notify Al Qaeda operatives of his arrival in Chicago.
But authorities say Padilla’s connection to the upper crust of Al Qaeda is best found in his activities with three of the organization’s top terrorists. The night before leaving for Chicago they threw him a bon voyage dinner — hosted by the men considered to be the 9/11 masterminds.
Baluchi, a native of Pakistan, was himself arrested in April of 2003. He has used several aliases, including Ali Abdul Aziz Ali; Habib; Mustafa; and “Losh.” His bombing targets were to be east coast gas stations.
Baluchi is believed to be held by the U.S. military at Quantanomo, Cuba.
Of course Glenn poo-poo’s the report because, hold on tight, they used anonymous informants!
The entire article is based on the anonymous claims of “federal authorities” — i.e., those trying to imprison Padilla for life (and just incidentally, why would a newspaper grant anonymity to federal prosecutors to make allegations against a criminal defendant, all in order to publish a one-sided story?).
Yup, the left has never come across an anonymous informant it didn’t like, except of course when they don’t go along with the program. Which program is that? Why the Socialist/Communist program of course. If they tell a side of a story that doesn’t agree with their reality then they must be lying.
Back to Glenn’s statement. Check out this part:
and can deny you the right to any judicial review of your imprisonment or any mechanism for challenging the accuracy of the accusations.
I would call this selective memory since Padilla has had more then a few judicial reviews. I guess Glenn just forget they occurred.
I find it curious how those on the left are more concerned that our enemies get due process instead of being concerned that Al-Qaeda is working amongst us.
We are at war. If an American citizen is actively working for the enemy then it is no longer a criminal issue. He is an enemy combatant, plain and simple.
Jeff at Protein Wisdom says much the same, except much more eloguently:
I am of the position that a law-enforcement paradigm doesn’t work when prosecuting a war–that the criminal justice system is no place to try citizens who have taken up arms against their country in the service of a foreign power–but I recognize that such a position carries with it Constitutional tensions. Unfortunately, those who prefer to hyperventilate about how “our” civil liberties are being taken away from us (a position I don’t believe it is particularly difficult or brave to assume, incidentally) seem less interested in trying to address and reconcile these legal questions than they do in creating showy defenses of liberty that are, when all is said and done, nothing more than opportunities to purchase a bit of cheap grace at the expense of those who are trying to address a threat they recognize as both real and, from a pragmatic perspective, designed to take advantage of the openness of our society and the constitutional protections we grant our citizens.
I do not understand in the slightest how those who witnessed 9/11, who have heard Al-Qaeda issue threats and threats against us ever since, would come to the conclusion that they pose no danger anymore. That maybe, just maybe they would recruit American citizens to do their dirty work.
If an American citizen is working with the enemy to destroy this country then THEY are the enemy and should be treated as such….Prisoners of War and illegal combatants are not entitled to a trial during the war, end of story.
If an American citizen is working with the enemy to destroy this country then THEY are the enemy and should be treated as such….Prisoners of War and illegal combatants are not entitled to a trial during the war, end of story.
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