Coming
Soon!
From Common Courage Press
Recent
Stories
July
10, 2003
Joanne
Mariner
Federal Courts, Not Military Commissions
July
9, 2003
David
Lindorff
Is the Media Finally Turning on
Bush?
David
Krieger and Angela McCracken
10 Myths About Nuclear Weapons
Mickey
Z.
Why Speak Out?
Lee Sustar
The Great Medicare Fraud
John
Chuckman
The Worst Kind of Lie
Gary Leupp
"Pacifist" Japan and the Occupation of Iraq
Website
of the Day
Hail to the Thief:
Songs for the Bush Years
July
8, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
Bully on the Bench: the Pathological
Dissents of Scalia
Alan
Maass
Nights of Fire and Rage in Benton Harbor
Chris
Floyd
Troubled Sleep: Getting Used to the American Gulag
Linda
S. Heard
America's Kangaroo Justice
Brian
Cloughley
They Tell Lies to Nodders
Charles
Sullivan
Bush the Christian?
Saul
Landau
The Intelligence Culture in the National Security Age
Website
of the Day
Occupation Watch
July
7, 2003
William
Blum
The Anti-Empire Report
Harvey
Wasserman
The Nuke with a Hole in Its Head
Ramzy
Baroud
Peace for All the Wrong Reasons
Simon
Jones
What Progressives Should Think About
Iran
Lesley
McCulloch
Fear, Pain and Shame in Aceh
Uri
Avnery
The Draw
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/3
July
4 / 6, 2003
Patrick
Cockburn
Dead on the Fourth of July
Frederick
Douglass
What is Freedom to a Slave?
Martha
Honey
Bush and Africa: Racism, Exploitation
and Neglect
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Rat in the Grain: Amstutz and
the Looting of Iraqi Agriculture
Standard
Schaefer
Rule by Fed: Anyone But Greenspan in 2004
Lenni Brenner
Jefferson is for Today
Elaine
Cassel
Fucking Furious on the Fourth
Ben Tripp
How Free Are We?
Wayne
Madsen
A Sad Independence Day
John Stanton
Happy Birthday, America! 227 Years of War
Jim
Lobe
Bush's Surreal AIDS Appointment
John Blair
Return to Marble Hill: Indiana's Rusting Nuke
Lisa
Walsh Thomas
Heavy Reckoning at Qaim
David Vest
Wake Up and Smell the Dynamite
Adam
Engel
Queer as Grass
Poets'
Basement
Christian, Witherup, Albert & St. Clair
Website
of the Weekend
The Lipstick Librarian
July
3, 2003
Patrick
W. Gavin
The Meaning of Gettysburg
Thomas
W. Croft
There Was a Reason They Called It the Casino Economy
David
Lindorff
Outlawing Subversives: Hong Kong
and the US
John
Chuckman
Lessons from the American Revolution
Jackson
Thoreau
New Far-Right Scheme: Impeach Supreme Court Justices
Stan
Goff
"Bring 'Em On?": a Former
Special Forces Soldier Responds to Bush's Invitation for Iraqis
to Attack US Troops
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/3
July 2, 2003
Diane
Christian
Good Killing and Bad Killing
Richard
Falk
After Iraq, Does UN War Prevention Have a Future?
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Bush Administration: Causing Repetitive Stress
Justin
Podur
Uribe's Onslaught Across Colombia
Reuven
Kaviner
Prosecuting Ben-Artzi, the Refusenik
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/2
July
1, 2003
Sasan
Fayamanesh
Weapon of Choice: Nukes, Israel and
Iran
Elaine
Cassel
Sex and the Supreme Moralizer: Scalia
and the Sodomy Cops
Susan
Block
A Love Supreme: Our Assholes Belong
to Ourselves
Bill
Glahn
RIAA Watch: No, No Bono
David Lindorff
Weapons in Search of a Name
Gary
Leupp
Occupation, Resistance and the Plight of the GIs
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/1
June
30, 2003
Karyn
Strickler
The Do-Nothings: an Exposé
of Progressive Politics in America
Col. Dan
Smith
The Occupation of Iraq: Descending into the Quagmire
Tim
Wise
Race and Destruction in Black and White
Neve Gordon
The Roadmap and the Wall
Chris
Floyd
The Revelation of St. George: "God Told Me to Strike Saddam"
Elaine
Cassel
Kentucky Woman
Uri
Avnery
Hope in Dark Times
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/30
Website
of the Day
Bush El Hombre
June
28 / 29, 2003
M.
Shahid Alam
Bernard Lewis: Scholarship or Sophistry?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Meet Steven Griles: Big Oil's Inside
Man
Laura
Carlsen
Democracy's Future: From the Polls or the Populace?
Alan Maass
You Call These Democrats an Alternative?
C.Y.
Gopinath
Bush and Kindergarten
Noah Leavitt
Bush, the Death Penalty and International Law
Joanne
Mariner
Rehnquist Family Values
Ignacio
Chapela
Tenure, Censorship and Biotech at Berkeley
Bob
Scowcroft
Bush's Squeeze on Organic Farmers
Jon Brown
Tom Delay: "I am the Government"
Kam
Zarrabi
Keep Your Hands Off Iran, Please!
Ron Jacobs
Big Bill Broonzy's Conversation with the Blues
Julie
Hilden
Fear Factor: Art, Terror and the First Amendment
Adrien
Rain Burke
The Anarchists' Wedding Guide
Adam
Engel
US Troops Outta Times Square
Poets'
Basement
Witherup, Guthrie, Albert, Hamod
June
27, 2003
Jason
Leopold
CIA: Seven Months Prior to 9/11 Iraq
Posed No Threat to US
David
Vest
Supreme Silence: Bush's Bunker-Hunker
David
Lindorff
The Catch and Release of "Comical
Ali"
Ray McGovern
Cheney, Forgery and the CIA
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/26
Website
of the Day
John Kerry, Teresa Heinz & Ken Lay: The Politics of Hypocrisy
June
26, 2003
Sen.
Robert Byrd
The Road of Cover-Up is a Road to Ruin
Jason
Leopold
Wolfowitz Instructed the CIA to Investigate
Hans Blix
Paul
de Rooij
Ambient Death in Palestine
Chris Floyd
Mass Graves and Burned Meat in Bush's New Iraq
Elaine
Cassel
Wolfowitz as Lord High Executioner
CounterPunch
Wire
Musicians Unite Against Sweatshops
Sheldon
Hull
Squatting in Mansions
Ben Tripp
A Guide to Hating Almost Anyone
Uri
Avnery
The Best Show in Town
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/25
Website
of the Day
Ordinary Vistas:
The Photographs of Kurt Nimmo
June
25, 2003
Bruce
Jackson
Buffalo Cops Wage War on Pedal Pushers
Mickey
Z.
The New Dark Ages
David Lindorff
Indonesia's War on Journalists
Dan
Bacher
Butterflies and Farmworkers Confront USDA and Riot Cops
Adam Federman
"Success is Not the Issue Here"
Elaine
Cassel
"Ain't No Justice": Fed Judge Quits, Assails Sentencing
Guidelines
Bill Kauffman
My America vs. the Empire
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/25
Website
of the Day
You Are Being Watched:
Elevator Moods
June
24, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
Supreme Indemnity
Holocaust Denial at the High Court
Roya
Monajem
A Message from Tehran: Is It Worth
It to Risk One's Life?
John
Chuckman
The Real Clash of Civilizations
David Lindorff
WMD Damage Control at the Times
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/24
June
23, 2003
Marc
Pritzke
Washington Lied: an Interview with
Ray McGovern
Conn
Hallinan
The Consistency of Sharon
Wayne Madsen
Commercials, Disney & Amistad
Edward
Said
The Meaning of Rachel Corrie
Steve Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/23
June
21 / 22, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
My Life as a Rabbi
William
A. Cook
The Scourge of Hopelessness
Standard
Schaefer
The Wages of Terror: an Interview with R.T. Naylor
Ron Jacobs
US Prisons as Strategic Hamlets
Harry
Browne
The Pitstop Ploughshares
Lawrence
Magnuson
WMD: The Most Dangerous Game
Harold
Gould
Saddam and the WMD Mystery
David Krieger
10 Reasons to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Avia
Pasternak
The Unholy Alliance in the Occupied Territories
CounterPunch
Summer Reading:
Our Favorite Novels
Todd Chretien
Return to Sender: Todd Gitlin, the Duke of Condescension
Maria
Tomchick
Danny Goldberg's Imaginary Kids
Adam Engel
The Fat Man in Little Boy
Poets'
Basement
Guthrie, Albert & Hamod
June 20, 2003
Walter
Brasch
Down on Our Knees
Robert
Meeropol
The Son of the Rosenbergs on His Parents Death and Bush's America
Russell
Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
Grannies and Baby Bells
Norman
Madarasz
Pierre Bourgault: the Life of a
Quebec Radical
Gary
Leupp
Bush on "Revisionist Historians"
Steve
Perry
Bush's Lies
Marathon: the Finale
Hot Stories
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
|
July
9, 2003
Defendants, Not Combatants
Federal
Courts, Not Military Commissions
By JOANNE MARINER
Boston federal judge William G. Young garnered
national media attention last January when, in sentencing "shoe
bomber" Richard Reid to several terms of life imprisonment,
he dismissed Reid's claim to be taking part in a war against
the United States. "You are not an enemy combatant,"
insisted Young. "You are a terrorist."
The New York Post ran a photo of Judge
Young on its cover the next day, praising him as a "tough-talking
federal judge." But what it failed to mention in describing
the Boston jurist's patriotic outburst was that his message was
directed at the Bush Administration at least as much as it was
at Reid.
Seeking to evade civilian trial guarantees,
the Administration seems ever more inclined to treat terrorism
suspects as wartime enemies. Although it claims to do so for
the worthiest of reasons, its actions seem opportunistic, at
best. "Enemy combatants," under the rules the Pentagon
applies, have no status or protection under the laws of war and
are unable to assert their ordinary rights as criminal defendants.
Thought of conceptually, the civilian
and military systems are two different worlds. Under the Bush
Administration's authority, however, the overlap is considerable.
While Reid had his day in federal court, similar cases are likely
to be tried  before military commissions.
Indeed, just two weeks ago, the government put an abrupt end
to another federal criminal prosecution by transferring the defendant
to a Navy brig.
With a stroke of the pen, the detainee--a
Qatari student arrested in Peoria, Illinois--was transformed
into an "enemy combatant."
The "Do Not Move
Him" Order
In presiding over the Richard Reid case,
Judge Young was the first to challenge such dubious prosecutorial
maneuvers. Reid, a British citizen accused of trying to blow
up a jetliner, was such a likely candidate for designation as
an enemy combatant that Young issued an emergency order in March
2002 to block the defendant's transfer out of the jurisdiction.
Although Judge Young later revoked his
emergency "do not move him" order, concluding that
he lacked the power to compel the government to prosecute Reid
in his courtroom, he made an eloquent case for keeping terrorism
trials in the civilian court system. Implicitly criticizing the
lesser procedural rules that the Bush Administration has fashioned
for military tribunals, Young lauded prosecutors' efforts to
show "formal proof beyond a reasonable doubt in a public
courtroom."
Besides the greater fairness inherent
in civilian trials, Judge Young underscored their symbolic value.
By bringing a case to trial in federal court, Young explained,
the government "invigorates and strengthens our democracy
. . . and demonstrates to the world at large its absolute faith
in the strength and independence of our institutions."
Of War and Credit
Card Fraud
While the Reid prosecution ended successfully--in
a guilty plea and a heavy sentence--Judge Young's fear that the
government might forum-shop between the civilian and military
systems were borne out in the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri.
Al-Marri--the Qatari student whose case was recently yanked out
of federal court--was originally detained in December 2001, the
same month that Reid was arrested.
Al-Marri, like Reid--and like Jose Padilla,
another "enemy combatant" now in military detention--was
arrested far from any battlefield. He was unarmed, and carried
no military gear or other indicators of martial status.
The FBI did, however, find evidence to
implicate al-Marri in criminal activity. Indeed, although the
presidential order directing his transfer to military custody
accused him of engaging in "hostile and war-like acts,"
the civilian charges he faced involved credit card fraud and
lying to FBI agents.
Up until he was declared an enemy combatant,
al-Marri was looking at a July 21 trial date in Peoria, Illinois.
Now, as he languishes in incommunicado detention, his future
is far less certain. But one thing is clear: his trial, if and
when the Pentagon decides to hold it, will almost certainly take
place before a military commission.
A "Profound Shift
in our Legal Institutions"
Last week, with President's Bush designation
of six detainees as eligible for trial before military commissions,
the trend toward reliance on a parallel system of justice to
prosecute crimes of terrorism gained real momentum. It seems
very likely, in fact, that military commission proceedings will
begin within the next month or so.
Judge Young, writing in the Reid case,
said that the move toward trying federal crimes in military commissions
was "the most profound shift in our legal institutions"
he had witnessed in his lifetime. What he decried, most of all,
was that this shift had "taken place without engaging any
broad public interest whatsoever."
Now that these proceedings are poised
to begin, it is time for the public to start paying attention.
At Reid's sentencing hearing earlier this year, Judge Young outlined
the most compelling reasons to do so.
Young told Reid that he had been tried
in federal court so that justice in his case could be administered
"fairly, individually, and discretely." And he explained:
"Because we all know that the way we treat you, Mr. Reid,
is the measure of our own liberties."
Joanne Mariner
is a human rights attorney and regular CounterPunch contributor.
She is the author of No
Escape: Male Rape in US Prisons published by Human Rights
Watch. An earlier version of this piece appeared in FindLaw's
Writ. She can be reached at: mariner@counterpunch.org.
Weekend
Edition Features
Patrick
Cockburn
Dead on the Fourth of July
Frederick
Douglass
What is Freedom to a Slave?
Martha
Honey
Bush and Africa: Racism, Exploitation
and Neglect
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Rat in the Grain: Amstutz and
the Looting of Iraqi Agriculture
Standard
Schaefer
Rule by Fed: Anyone But Greenspan in 2004
Lenni Brenner
Jefferson is for Today
Elaine
Cassel
Fucking Furious on the Fourth
Ben Tripp
How Free Are We?
Wayne
Madsen
A Sad Independence Day
John Stanton
Happy Birthday, America! 227 Years of War
Jim
Lobe
Bush's Surreal AIDS Appointment
John Blair
Return to Marble Hill: Indiana's Rusting Nuke
Lisa
Walsh Thomas
Heavy Reckoning at Qaim
David Vest
Wake Up and Smell the Dynamite
Adam
Engel
Queer as Grass
Poets'
Basement
Christian, Witherup, Albert & St. Clair
Website
of the Weekend
The Lipstick Librarian
Keep CounterPunch
Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home / subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
|