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Be Careful What You Cheer for in the Mohammed Case
By Jacob Hornberger  The Pentagon is sending a powerful message to the American people with its treatment of accused terrorist Khalid Shaikh Mohammed: “This is how we military types handle accused terrorists. Turn your federal criminal justice system over to us and you won’t ever have to worry about an independent press, impartial federal judges, and pesky criminal-defense lawyers ever again.”
Keep in mind that the Pentagon’s proceedings depicted in the transcript of Mohammed’s “enemy combatant” hearing had already taken place in Cuba when the transcript was released. Reading the transcript, I found the entire process quite eerie. In fact, it reminded me of a similar proceeding I witnessed on Cuban television several years ago while I was visiting Havana. It just so happened that Cuban authorities were putting on trial some suspected terrorists with CIA-connections who had allegedly bombed some Cuban hotels, including the one in which I was staying. The trial was on national television and so I was able to watch parts of it. As I read the transcript of the Pentagon’s proceedings on its side of Castro’s island, I couldn’t help but think about how similar it was to the Cuban government’s proceedings that I saw on television. Military officials. No independent press. Terrified defense attorneys really working for the government, not their clients. No cross examination of witnesses. No calling of witnesses favorable to the defense. A pre-ordained outcome. A kangaroo proceeding. Any U.S. criminal defense attorney reading the transcript in the Mohammed hearing would be aghast. Mohammed’s unidentified “personal representative,” who no doubt works for the military, is helping his client make a confession instead of fighting to protect his client’s life, as the lawyers are doing, for example, in the Jose Padilla case and as they did in the Zacharias Moussaoui case. Before Americans cheer too effusively over how the Pentagon is handling Mohammed, everyone should bear in mind that the Pentagon also now has the post-9/11 authority to treat American citizens as “enemy combatants.” Like I say, the Pentagon is sending a powerful message to the American people: “See how effective we are in getting confessions out of people. See how effective we are in getting people executed, unlike those juries of your peers in federal court, who oftentimes acquit accused terrorists, such as in federal district court in Detroit, or let them live, such as in the federal district court trial of Zacharias Moussouai, who, like Mohammed, was accused of being a 9/11 co-conspirator." Before Americans cheer too effusively over how the Pentagon is handling Mohammed, everyone should bear in mind that the Pentagon also now has the post-9/11 authority to treat American citizens as “enemy combatants.” If you don’t believe me, just ask American citizen Jose Padilla or any of the judges of the conservative Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld the Pentagon’s “enemy combatant” theory as applied to American citizens as part of the “war on terror.” Mr. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. Recommend this article...
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