11/23/09

Bringing the full weight of the American justice system to bear on the 9/11 conspirators is the best means for rebuking their hate-filled ideology before the world.  While the announcement that those being brought to trial will plead not guilty in order to condemn U.S. foreign policy may alarm some conservative fear-mongers, sensible Americans have nothing to fear.  Our courts have handled similar challenges in the past, with the rule of law coming out stronger and the terrorists’ charges failing to convince their intended audience.  In addition, an open trial will remind a global audience of the true nature of the Al Qaeda threat, undermining the jihadists’ attempts to legitimize their actions.  As experienced counterterrorism and Middle East hand Steven Simon wrote in the New York Times, by relying on its courts, the U.S. can put “Jihad on trial.”

Trying the 9/11 plotters using America’s legal system marks a significant step forward in closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.  Our most experienced national security professionals agree that the facility has blighted America’s image while harming our country’s security.  The administration’s decision to try 9/11 terrorists in civilian court will help lead to the closure of Guantanamo, a move that will help restore our reputation and improve our country’s security.  Closing the facility will require difficult political decisions like this to be made – decisions that the previous administration failed to make, largely because it created this albatross around America’s neck.

As 9/11 accused say they will plead not guilty, Justice says it has “full confidence” in courts.  The Associate Press reports: “The five men facing trial in the Sept. 11 attacks will plead not guilty so that they can air their criticisms of U.S. foreign policy, the lawyer for one of the defendants said Sunday.  Scott Fenstermaker, the lawyer for accused terrorist Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, said the men would not deny their role in the 2001 attacks but ‘would explain what happened and why they did it.’ Ali, also known as Ammar al-Baluchi, is a nephew of professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.  Mohammed, Ali and the others will explain ‘their assessment of American foreign policy,’ Fenstermaker said. ‘Their assessment is negative,’ he said.”  According to the New York Times “Mr. Fenstermaker… gave The New York Times a translation from Arabic of a two-page letter written by Mr. Mohammed, Mr. Ali, and a third 9/11 defendant, Walid Muhammad Salih bin Attash to the military court at Guantánamo in September… the three men used it to condemn the United States’ military presence in Muslim countries and its support for Israel, a preview of the kind of thing they might be expected to say in court.”

The Justice Department responded by placing full confidence in the American legal judicial system.  “Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the Department of Justice, said Sunday that while the men may attempt to use the trial to express their views, ‘we have full confidence in the ability of the courts and in particular the federal judge who may preside over the trial to ensure that the proceeding is conducted appropriately and with minimal disruption, as federal courts have done in the past.’” reported the AP.  [AP, via CBS News, 11/23/09. NY Times, 11/22/09]

Legal experts say federal trials for the 9/11 plotters will strike a blow against Al Qaeda – contrary to conservative critiques.  The announcement that the 9/11 plotters will be tried in federal courts has emboldened some extreme conservative critics who argue that federal trials will act as a propaganda platform for Al Qaeda.  Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R – MI) remarked: “[t]he suspects are going to "make it a circus and use it as a platform to push their ideology.” Instead of feeding into the hysteria, Attorney General Eric Holder calmly told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the opposite will take place, “I'm not scared of what Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has to say at trial, and no one else has to be afraid either.”

Trials will not be a soapbox for Al Qaeda’s hateful ideology: Ryan Witt, columnist for the Washington Examiner, writes: “Those who believe that these terrorists will be able to spread propaganda in the trial must have never attended a criminal trial.  Defendants are not allowed to simply give a political speech any time they like.  In reality trials are very structured and defendants who try to deviate from courtroom procedure generally find themselves escorted out very quickly.”  [Ryan Witt, 11/22/09]

Open, federal trials for 9/11 plotters will lay bare their horrific crimes for the whole world to see: In an interview for the Council on Foreign Relations, Middle East and counterterrorism expert Steven Simon argued that trying the 9/11 plotters in civilian courts represented a “chance to show the world, you know, the evil, for lack of a better word, of the people who visited this terrible, terrible thing on New York City and the people in those buildings on 9/11, and I think that's really important.” [Steven Simon, CFR Interview, 11/18/09]

Putting the terrorists on trial in the American justice system diminishes their stature: Former Assistant US Attorney E. Lawrence Barcella Jr., who prosecuted members of the Chilean secret police for the murders of Ambassador Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt in Embassy Row, wrote of that experience: “During a recess in the trial, I was in the hallway outside the heavily guarded courtroom, and I heard one spectator remark, ‘Ya know, those terrorists don't look so scary in a big, marbled courtroom surrounded by U.S. marshals!’ A simple observation that said much.” [E. Lawrence Barcella Jr., 11/23/09]

[Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R – MI), Voice of America News, 11/15/09. Attorney General Eric Holder, via ACS, 11/18/09]

The real propaganda victory for Al Qaeda would be to keep Guantanamo Bay open.  Guantanamo Bay and the illegal interrogation practices that took place there have been a more powerful recruitment tool than anything Al Qaeda could have hoped for. 

Dr. Ahmad Farooq, senior media representative for Al Qaeda in Pakistan, emphasized the propaganda value that Al-Qaida gains from hot-button issues like Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. He referred to the existence of Gitmo as "another great benefit these attacks brought... America had hidden its charlatanic face with an innocent mask…and many amongst the Muslim Ummah considered it to be different than Russia…to be ‘civilized’. Allah set straight the truth. Whatever happened in Guantanamo…the horrors of Abu Ghraib; this was how Allah revealed the hideous, Crusader and secular face of America in front of the world. This is none but a blessing of the Jihad…the blessing of the Tuesday attacks.”

Matthew Alexander, the pseudonym of the retired Air Force major and interrogator who located the notorious terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, discussed how Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and the Bush administration’s torture policies were a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda: “I listened time and time again to foreign fighters, and Sunni Iraqis, state that the number one reason they had decided to pick up arms and join Al Qaeda was the abuses at Abu Ghraib and the authorized torture and abuse at Guantanamo Bay...  Consequently it is clear that at least hundreds but more likely thousands of American lives (not to count Iraqi civilian deaths) are linked directly to the policy decision to introduce the torture and abuse of prisoners as accepted tactics.” Navy General Counsel Alberto Mora made a similar point when he testified before Congress, explaining that the stain on America’s image caused by Guantanamo Bay led directly to American deaths: “Serving U.S. flag-rank officers... maintain that the first and second identifiable causes of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq – as judged by their effectiveness in recruiting insurgent fighters into combat – are, respectively the symbols of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.” 

A bipartisan report from the Senate Armed Services Committee similarly points out the dangerous recruiting tool that Guantanamo Bay and Bush administration abuses have been. According to the report, “Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists are taught to expect Americans to abuse them. They are recruited based on false propaganda that says the United States is out to destroy Islam. Treating detainees harshly only reinforces that distorted view, increases resistance to cooperation, and creates new enemies. In fact, the April 2006 National Intelligence Estimate ‘Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States’ cited ‘pervasive anti U.S. sentiment among most Muslims’ as an underlying factor fueling the spread of the global jihadist movement.”

In addition, CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus has clearly stated his support for closing Guantanamo and depriving the enemy of this recruiting tool.  In an interview earlier this year, Petraeus remarked that closing Guantanamo “sends an important message to the world, as does the commitment of the United States to observe the Geneva Convention when it comes to the treatment of detainees.”  [Counterterrorism Blog, 11/19/09. Harper’s Magazine, 12/18/08. Alberto Mora, 6/17/08. Senate Armed Services Committee, 12/08.  General Petraeus, 5/24/09]

What We’re Reading

Shifting variables make it difficult for the Obama administration to put a price tag on any potential troop increase for Afghanistan. Meanwhile, some efforts of reconciliation with the Taliban are underway, with the Afghan and US government attempting to reach out to some Taliban fighters with jobs and protection.

Political pressure has increased dramatically on Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, as lists of politicians receiving amnesty from past allegations of corruption reveal many are from his own political party.

Iran initiates military exercises to practice defending against attacks targeting its nuclear facilities. Human rights groups and Iran experts fear a recent surge in capital punishment is aimed at intimidating the political opposition.

African nations are increasingly leasing their land to foreigners for agricultural use.

Doubts are raised at the Mexican military’s release of data on human rights abuses regarding their three-year campaign against violent drug cartels.

36 Filipinos have been kidnapped—and 21 of them killed—by militants while attempting to vote in a recent election.

The West Bank is seeing new construction of suburban-style, planned neighborhoods and the introduction of home mortgages for middle-class Palestinians.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be feted at President Obama's first state dinner.

With political crises continuing to paralyze Madagascar, loggers are filling the governance void and putting many forests and endangered species at risk.

Commentary of the Day

The New York Times urges ethics regulations for retired generals and other military officials who continue to work at the Pentagon as paid consultants, when many also work for defense contractors.

Fareed Zakaria urges the Obama administration to continue deepening ties with the leadership of India and not look only at China and Pakistan as the focal points for US strategy in Asia.

The Washington Post wants Turkey’s Islamist government to cease its intimidation campaign against media companies that criticize their policies, a campaign which the Post believes stems from Turkey’s dimming prospects for EU membership.