Attention Seeking, Exploiting Morons (Enemy Combatant Court) [View all]

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tweeted by, katherine ‏@capecodgurl 25m

BEFORE they know what happened Lindsey Graham & John McCain call for enemy combatant court..attention seeking, exploiting morons.

“Under the Law of War we can hold this suspect as a potential enemy combatant not entitled to Miranda warnings or the appointment of counsel,” the Republicans said in a statement released Friday night. “Our goal at this critical juncture should be to gather intelligence and protect our nation from further attacks. We remain under threat from radical Islam and we hope the Obama Administration will seriously consider the enemy combatant option.”

from David Weigel at Slate:

The "Enemy Combatant" Travesty

____ According to early reports, the administration isn't considering this. More importantly, though, what is Graham talking about?* Earlier in the week, when I was part of a scrum of reporters asking Maine Sen. Susan Collins what she thought about the case—before we had the name of a suspect—she said this:

If he’s an American, obviously, then the constitutional protections pertain. If he is a foreign national, in my view, then he should be held by a military tribunal.

Well, like it or not, he's an American. Even if the Obama administration embraced the concept of a war-on-terror enemy combatant, what evidence is there to suggest that Tsarnaev is one? The 2001 authorization of force, broad at it is, authorizies the president:

. . . to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.

Does that description apply to a 19-year-old naturalized citizen who (allegedly!) committed an act of terror that no international organization took credit for?

The "military tribunal" and "enemy combatant" crowd will have loud megaphones. If they're right, good for them; if they're wrong, they won't lose their microphones or pundit cards. That's fine. We can ignore them for now. This is a night (day) for Boston and the rule of law . . .


read article (+ good comment thread on miranda and the rest): http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/04/19/the_enemy_combatant_travesty.html