RatcliffeBlog - Mitch Thinking Out Loud

Bizarre Turn: Hiding the Truth By Dismissing Moussaoui Charges

This is astonishing. The U.S. government has moved the dismissal of all charges against Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged "20th hijacker," in order to stop him from questioning prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. According to the DoJ:

"We believe that the Constitution does not require, and national security will not permit, the Government to allow Moussaoui, an avowed terrorist, to have direct access to his terrorist confederates who have been detained abroad as enemy combatants in the midst of a war. We believe there are other ways in which to assure Moussaoui the fundamentally fair trial that the Constitution does require. If the district court now dismisses the indictment -- which is the procedural step contemplated by both the earlier ruling of the Court of Appeals in this case and by the laws governing classified information -- the Government will be ensured its opportunity to obtain prompt appellate review of the direct access issue. The same procedures will ensure that Moussaoui stays detained pending appeal. We believe this will allow the Department of Justice to resolve the impediments to trial. We remain confident in the ability of our judicial system to try this case, and we look forward to bringing Moussaoui to justice."

This is astonishing. It also raises serious questions about what is going on at Guantanamo, since allowing a defendant to question detained persons hardly constitutes a risk to national security, since there is no way that communication could be conveyed to the leaders of al Queda to act upon. The recent charges of treason against to Muslims who worked at Guantanamo, too, should be examined to see if these men are being charged simply because they observed and were prepared to expose inhumane conditions at the base. If the government would drop capital charges against Moussaoui (while still detaining him as a terrorist -- violating habeus corpus, a foundational American right), then would it charge two soldiers with treason for blowing the whistle on unconstitutional treatment of prisoners?

The Constitution does not use the word "terrorist," but it did use the word "accused" and guaranteed the same rights to all persons accused of crimes in the United States. This bizarre twist, which, if carried to its logical conclusion, could result in the perpetual detention of Moussaoui because he cannot be tried fairly, is a clear indication that the time has come to demand open and fair trials for all persons accused in the "War on Terror" in the tradition of American courts and not those of tyrannies.