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March 05, 2010

The Rule of Law Gets Shivved
Posted by Michael Cohen

In what has to be the most depressing/least surprising news in recent memory the Obama Administration appears to be very close to relenting to Congressional and public pressure and reversing the decision to prosecute Khalid Shiekh Muhammed and 4 other al Qaeda defendants in civilian courts. Instead, the Administration will prosecute each of these alleged terrorists in military tribunals. 

Now there is going to be a lot of criticism in the liberal blogosphere - and elsewhere - of President Obama for this decision. Some of it is deserved. But there is rich irony indeed in the notion that Obama will take the hit for his. Now as my bloggingmate Heather Hurlburt will almost certainly argue the Obama Administration screwed up the public relations badly on this - and she's right. But in fact when one looks across the political spectrum it was perhaps the Obama Administration that stood up the most consistently - though imperfectly - for the promulgation of the rule of law. (Though granted we're talking about a rather thin pool).

First and foremost, blame must obviously be directed at President Bush, Vice President Cheney and their many acolytes inside and outside government who pushed for this illegal system of military tribunals. It's bad enough that they left this mess for Obama to clean-up, but after losing power they then used the malevolent argument that civilian trials for terrorists would put the country at risk to push for its continuation. Shame on them and shame on a political party that would so matter of factly toss the rule of law into the gutter.

Second, where were the Democrats? Sure there were many who advocated for civilian trials and who demanded an end to military tribunals and the closure of Gitmo. But when Obama wanted to close Guantanamo Bay in May of last year, profile in courage Jim Webb solemnly declared "We spent hundreds of millions of dollars building an appropriate facility with all security precautions on Guantanamo to try these cases. I do not believe they should be tried in the United States." Harry Reid wasn't much better saying, "We will never allow terrorists to be released in the United States."

When the Senate voted to strip funding from a military spending bill only 6 Democrats had the courage of their convictions to stand up for the rule of law.

Third, my mayor Mike Bloomberg deserves a good kick in the shins . . . for the one he delivered to the Obama Administration. After initially agreeing that it would be appropriate to host a trial for KSM in New York he quickly turned tail when New York voters indicated concern. Instead of trying to reassure skittish voters or seek out a compromise, Bloomberg told Obama no dice. My senior Senator (Chuck Schumer) didn't help matters much either when he reportedly told the White House to drop any idea of a New York state trial for the 9/11 mastermind.

Finally, how about a Bronx cheer for the American people in so easily bowing to the alarmist rhetoric of political opportunists warning of a dire consequences for actually upholding the rule of law. This is the worst sort of NIMBYism and while certainly one has to blame political manipulation for all this, clearly voters are more than happy to play along.

So in the end, the depressing conclusion to all this is that a good part of our political class isn't really that interested in promoting the rule of law when it comes to dealing with the threat of terrorism.  That so many Americans are willing to go along with this; and that so many politicians are either willing to use the fear of terrorism to abrogate the rule of law (or are unwilling to stand up for it) is not all on Barack Obama. It's on America.

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