It is time for Eric Holder to go, Mr. President

President Obama, it is time to replace Eric Holder. I know you have a lot on your mind these days, but the country can no longer afford to give Mr. Holder the benefit of the doubt. Give him his walking papers today.

Eric Holder’s tenure as Attorney General has been marked with moments of genuine leadership. However, those under his management have too often wielded a careless and heavy-hand in discharging their duties. The mission of the Department Justice should include the protection of freedom and the steadfast defense of individual rights. General Holder has been too willing to approve thuggery in the name of the war on terror or in a misguided belief sidestepping or operating in the grey area of the Constitution provides an affordable, quick route to solving crime.

Tying the hands of Lady Liberty may produce a short-term win occasionally, but these minor victories are not worth the long-term price.

The breaking scandal regarding the Department of Justice’s improper seizure of phone records relating to the AP and its employees proves one of two things; either Mr. Holder believes the Justice Department is above the laws it is empowered to enforce, or he has lost control of the Department he is supposed to oversee. Either way the President should release Mr. Holder from service immediately.

There will be watchdogs for the President’s political legacy who will argue firing Eric Holder will be viewed as a sign a weakness – a Holder departure will be blood in the water for the sharks in search of a feeding frenzy on what is wrong in the Administration. These watchdogs are wrong.

Decisive action by the President will show he might be ready to steer our country away from the destructive course it has been taking since 9/11, a course where government overreach has been generally accepted in an age of loosely organized terrorists. Sadly, this overreach has handed unintended victories to those out to destroy us. U.S. drone strikes may have resulted in the killing of a few enemies, but the loss of innocent lives have encouraged countless others to join the cause of those killed. The cost of an army of TSA agents working at our airports, the funding of multiple war fronts and the loss of certain freedoms once enjoyed by Americans has come with an incalculable financial and human price. And, these are only two examples of how we have lost and our enemies have won.

Firing Eric Holder will make a strong statement the President is interested in restoring a government that will once again fight to protect the liberty of the people as it abides by the laws of the people. Do this, Mr. President, and you will have dealt a blow to those out to destroy us by bolstering freedom, that which makes America great. The next step will be hiring an Attorney General who understands this new direction, something Mr. Holder does not.

###

Graham Gillette can be reached at grahamgillette@gmail.com 

This entry was first published as a Des Moines Register online essay.

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.