What's clear is that Senator Bond needs to familiarize himself with some of the bigger Supreme Court cases surrounding the issue of prosecuting enemy combatants, and what's been happening in recent cases (he also looks a bit lost from time to time, but I'll leave that for another day).
Both Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (2004) and Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006) make it clear that (1) U.S. citizens classified as enemy combatants (Hamdi) can not be held indefinitely without due process protections, which include the right to counsel, (2) the executive branch can't control all aspects of a trial concerning enemy combatants (evidence gathering, prosectution, appeal, etc.) with military commissions not sanctioned by Congress, and (3) Geneva Convention protections apply to enememy combatants.
While Hamdi v. Rumsfeld has little to do with one of the cases Sen. Bond discusses - the Christmas day bomber - it is instructive for what it tells us about the rule of law in America, even when it comes to enemy combatants. Primarily, Hamdi suggests that we don't lose our heads because a group of crazies attacked us. It also tells us that we can follow the rule of law even when the going gets tough.
At the heart of Senator Bonds' remarks is his concern that the Christmas day bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, will use civilian courts as a soapbox from which to recruit other would-be terrorists in America (because we all know how effective the Charlie Manson trial was in furthering his Helter Skelter delusion). Senator Bond seems to forget that our court forums aren't at the heart of what drives the al Qaeda nut jobs. There are a ton of books and articles written that make this clear.
Worse is Senator Bond's claim that reading Abdulmutallab his Miranda rights made him clam up. This, according to Senator Bond, makes America less safe. If we are to accept the FBI's account of things - which I'm inclined to do - Senator Bond is not telling the truth. Put another way, he's lying. According to FBI Director Robert Mueller, who testified in front of Congress, the FBI agents who interrogated Abdulmutallab did not advise him of his Miranda right until after he made it clear that he wasn't going to cooperate with any more questioning.
Just as significantly, Abdulmutallab began to testify after his relatives talked to him and convinced him to cooperate. They did this not because they feared that Abdulmutallab would be tortured. Rather, according to a senior administration official, they helped investigators because they had faith in the U.S. legal system:
One of the principal reasons why his family came back is because they had complete trust in the US system of justice and believed that Umar Farouq would be treated fairly and appropriately ...Look, if Senator Bond is concerned about Miranda rights, interrogation techniques, and how we go about securing information, he needs to refamiliarize himself with the Shoe Bomber case of Richard Reid (among others). He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison by a civilian court on the intelligence he offered up after he was was read his Miranda rights. Reid's conviction happened during the Bush administration. Hundreds more have been prosecuted under similar circumstances in civilian courts as well (during the Bush administration).
At the end of the day, we need to remember that there are terrorists and other criminally crazy thugs who don't want to be captured in or by the United States. This happens for a reason. Drug kingpins (like Pablo Escobar) and others undertand how competent and tough our legal system is, and they make extraordinary efforts to avoid capture and extradition to the United States. Republicans don't seem to appreciate this, which is puzzling for many. But not me.
In my view the Republicans fear using our civil court system to try suspected enemy combatants not because of traffic jams and the expenses tied to a trial, as they claim. These are red herrings. Rather, they understand that the more success we have in civilian courts, the more people will understand that their militarized position and fear mongering doesn't always hold water. This makes them less relevant. The fact that they can't scare America into being afraid like they are, quite frankly, scares them.
I'll leave it at that for now.
- Mark
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