Joe Conason: The GOP’s Double Standard on Terror Trials

[babylonsister]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_gops_double_standard_on_terror_trials_20100210/

The GOP’s Double Standard on Terror Trials
Posted on Feb 10, 2010

By Joe Conason

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“When the Bush Justice Department obtained these convictions,” {Jane}Mayer notes, “the process was celebrated by some of the same people” who are now assaulting the patriotism and judgment of Attorney General Eric Holder for his efforts to do the same thing.

She quotes Rudolph Giuliani, who said after the Moussaoui conviction: “I was in awe of our system. It does demonstrate that we can give people a fair trial.” Simply because a Democrat now occupies the Oval Office, no doubt the former New York mayor will be deployed between now and November to denounce the very thing that he held in awe.

But Giuliani was right. A fair trial is the American way. A fair trial is what the Constitution provides for every criminal suspect apprehended on our soil, at the very least—which is why the Bush White House, knowing that the courts would uphold those traditional liberties, decided to honor them despite its authoritarian leanings. A fair trial is the way to prove that we aren’t afraid of al-Qaida and that, when captured, its members will be held accountable by the civilization they wish to destroy.

Our public officials take an oath to uphold the Constitution because that is the best way to protect the nation. From its first days, the Obama administration has sought to fulfill that pledge with a combination of judicial prosecutions and military force, with indictments and aerial drone strikes.

The prosecutions have forced several defendants to cooperate, including Abdulmutallab, and the drones—albeit at a terrible cost in civilian casualties—have badly disrupted al-Qaida. Whatever the wisdom of Obama’s policies, he is honestly trying to protect both the country and the Constitution. It is too bad the same cannot be said of his unscrupulous adversaries.