Railroading Moussauoi Mike Whitney

Opinion, September 2003, www.aljazeerah.info

Railroading Moussauoi

Mike Whitney

Al-Jazeerah, 9/29/03

The case against Zacharias Moussauoi is amazingly straightforward. Moussaoui should have been released months ago. The government has no case and they know it, but by implementing the ham fisted methods of the Ashcroft Justice Dept., the rule of law as we previously understood it no longer applies.

Of the 1200 terror suspects who were detained following 9-11, Moussaoui was the only one who was granted a trial or what we normally consider due process rights. It was clear from the onset that the Justice Dept felt that his conviction was certain, so they chose to make an example of him.

That turned out to be a mistake. Ashcroft's DOJ has proved itself to be so inept that it hasn't even been able to mount a serious prosecution of the man who is widely regarded as the 20th highjacker. Instead, Ashcroft has taken the unusual tact of disguising his own Dept's incompetence by depriving Moussaoui of his 6th Amendment rights.

Moussauoi's situation is really quite simple, he has requested the testimony of three of the suspected terrorists who are being held at Guantanamo Bay. He believes they can present testimony that will exonerate him. Judge Brinkema, who is presiding over the case, has suggested that their testimony can be provided by video tape so that the Government can delete any information that may be a threat to national security. Simple solution, right?

Only the Government has flatly refused, and has made no reasonable argument for it's intransigence. Rather, they have done everything within their power to coerce and intimidate Brinkema, so that she will exclude the exculpatory testimony from the trial.

This is no small matter. The sixth amendment clearly provides witnesses with the right "to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor". This is the heart and soul of our judicial system, and has undoubtedly saved countless thousands of innocent Americans from unjust punishment. The Justice Dept's strategy, to deprive Mousaoui of this critical right, is a direct attempt to subvert the process that allows a person to defend himself.

In the parallel universe that Mr Ashcroft occupies, the letter or spirit of the law are of little consequence. His primary function is fighting terrorism, whether that means savaging the Bill of Rights or not. So far, Ashcroft has met his match with principled Judge Brinkema, the only jurist who has stood firm against the strong arm tactics of the Justice Dept. But, how long she can resist the increasing pressure from the DOJ is impossible to guess?

Now, the Government is trying to move the case to a more favorable venue, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, perhaps, the most conservative court in the country. (The Court is oftentimes referred to sarcastically as the "Rocket Docket", for its speedy dispatch of dubious rulings) Some of the readers will recall that just two months ago, this very Court settled the Yasir Hamdi case with a ruling so extraordinary that it challenges our basic understanding of the Constitution.

The Court ruled by an 8 to 4 margin that the President can effectively strip a citizen of his Constitutional rights by declaring him an "enemy combatant". (Regardless of the fact that the term has no legal meaning, other than that assigned to it by the President) This puts the 280 million people in the US in the unique situation where their citizenship can be revoked by an edict from the President.

If the case is moved to the Fourth circuit Court of Appeals, we can assume that the outcome will be predictably grim for Moussaoui. Ashcroft will have accomplished his mission of delivering the defendant into the hands of ideologues like himself, and justice will have been subverted.

However the Mossaoui case is resolved, it provides a window into the broader strategy of the Bush Administration, a strategy that seeks to soften public attitudes towards the rule of law and systematically undermine the protections we have taken for granted for so long.

Note:

venue and bypass Brinkema by having the case dismissed so they can kick it up to the appelate court. The case would then be remanded to the 4th circuit court of appeals, affectionately known as the "Rocket Docket" for its unhesitant dispatch of justice. In other words, it is the modern day embodiment of the "hanging judge"

Mike Whitney, Snohomish WA, USA

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).