Justice in the Age of Terrorism

I have been trying for the last few days to write a piece about justice in the wake of the Ahmed Ghailani trial.  Ghailani went from being a suspected terrorist to a convicted felon last week.  He has yet to be sentenced, but he faces many years to life in a supermax prison.  Yet, he got off on the more serious murder and terrorism charges and, for many, this single count conviction was not good enough.  They are calling for terror suspects to be held indefinitely or to face military tribunals instead of federal prosecution.  I wanted to write about the need to support justice even in the worst of times, but doing so is proving more difficult than I thought.

Congressman Peter King, the incoming chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, was “disgusted at the total miscarriage of justice” and said the trial is evidence of the “absolute insanity of the Obama Administration’s decision to try al-Qaeda terrorists in civilian courts.”

On the Senate floor, Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said the president should offer assurances that “terrorists will be tried from now on in the military commission system that was established for this very purpose at the secure facility at Guantanamo Bay, or detained indefinitely, if they cannot be tried without jeopardizing national security.”

Congressman King is known for saying outrageous things and his comments above are over the top.  It is hard to reconcile “a total miscarriage of justice” with the fact the government secured a conviction and it is likely Ghailani will never again be a free man.

Senator McConnell, on the other hand, makes a compelling point when he says the combatants held at Guantánamo Bay should be “detained indefinitely, if they cannot be tried without jeopardizing national security.”  These guys aren’t suspected bank robbers.  If they are the demons we suspect them to be; they are out to destroy our country, way of life, concept of freedom, and each and every person who stands in their way as well as innocents who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Most of the people being held at Guantánamo are immoral pieces of trash.  I cannot think about them without being reminded of the horrors of 9/11, the loss of life and the sacrifices made by our brave troops in the years since.  However, the weapons of those out to destroy us include anything that causes us to put limits on freedom.  Preserving justice in the face of evil is the safeguard of liberty.  Locking the degenerates up in Cuba and throwing away the key may keep them from doing further harm, but by denying Lady Justice a role in this, are we shortchanging the American promise of fairness?

The government came very close to losing the Ghailani case.  The Judge excluded a key witness who admitted selling explosives to Ghailani.  This explains, in part, why the jury was unable to pronounce Ghailani guilty of the murder and other charges.  I will leave it to the legal experts to delve into the Judge’s decision and determine if and why he was wrong.  But, this decision by a single judge in a single case should not alone justify throwing our justice system out the window.  Logic tells me we should endeavor to make sure the system allows for evidence and witnesses to be presented fairly in every trial.  In other words, let’s fix what is broken before we give up on justice.

Then, I allow myself to recall that bright September day in 2001 when monsters appeared out of a bright blue sky and the 1998 attacks on US embassies in which Ghailani took part.  I remember the gripping account of Petty Officer Marcus Luttrell in his book Lone Survivor about the heroes of Operation Redwing.  As a Navy Seal, Luttrell knows what it is to be given an impossible task and summoning the courage to do what needs to be done.  He talked about war being a series of unthinkable, but sometimes unavoidable acts.  His words stick with me.

I do not like the idea of U.S. armed forces scooping people up from distant corners of the world and hauling them to undisclosed locations where they are quite likely tortured.  I believe we should allow our system of justice to work so that we may set a shining example of how a free people are the strongest people.  Until, I am reminded black and white often fade to grey.

I tried mightily to mount my high horse and rail against Peter King and the others.  In the end, I still think he is wrong to imply justice has no role when it comes to enemy combatants.  When I consider our enemies have no limits to what they would do to harm us, it is hard for this imperfect person to put all of my faith in Lady Justice when I know she, too, has her shortcomings.  Even with the conviction, the Ghailani trial showed these shortcomings.

I am not ready to join Congressman King and Senator McConnell’s call to sideline justice in times of war, but I am willing to admit we face some very difficult choices ahead.  I have put my high horse away, but I will do my best to remember that liberty and justice lie squarely in our hands even (perhaps, especially) when we are pondering the fates of the wicked.

###

(Graham Gillette can be reached at grahamgillette@gmail.com)

This entry was first published as a Des Moines Register blog entry.