Obama’s DOJ minion Eric Holder has demeaned and cheapened the rights of US citizens. These are hard fought rights gained by our forefathers with risk, blood, life and intellect. Constitutional rights including, confrontation by accuser, trial by jury, representation by counsel, strict evidentiary standards. These are rights unavailable to the majority of the world population and envied by those who don’t have them.
So why you may reasonably ask, would we give them to people who seek to destroy them and everything they stand for? Why would we take the risk that our intelligence sources would be exposed by the rules of discovery and evidence granted by these rights? Why, in fact, would we allow the exercise of these rights by the 911 terrorists-confessed terrorists–to use them to escape punishment?
The dynamic Obama-Holder duo makes a mockery of our heritage and of the sacrifices made to secure it. They do it intentionally because they put no value in it. Ever-bowing Obama travels the world apologizing for America. This elitist president has never served, never contributed; but he has sucked at the public trough for his short meteoric career. His trashing of America sadly is in many ways a self-fulfilling prophesy.
I subscribe to and recommend Stratfor Global Intelligence (www.stratfor.com) which today has an excellent article on wartime trials. Republication is permitted so I insert a portion here:
It is important to consider how wars are conducted. Enemy soldiers are not shot or captured because of what they have done; they are shot and captured because of who they are — members of an enemy military force. War, once launched, is pre-emptive. Soldiers are killed or captured in the course of fighting enemy forces, or even before they have carried out hostile acts. Soldiers are not held responsible for their actions, but neither are they immune to attack just because they have not done anything. Guilt and innocence do not enter into the equation. Certainly, if war crimes are in question, charges may be brought; the UCMJ determines how they will be tried by U.S. forces. Soldiers are tried by courts-martial, not by civilian courts, because of their status as soldiers. Soldiers are tried by a jury of their peers, and their peers are held to be other soldiers.
International law is actually not particularly ambiguous about the status of the members of al Qaeda. The Geneva Conventions do not apply to them because they have not adhered to a fundamental requirement of the Geneva Conventions, namely, identifying themselves as soldiers of an army. Doing so does not mean they must wear a uniform. The postwar Geneva Conventions make room for partisans, something older versions of the conventions did not. A partisan is not a uniformed fighter, but he must wear some form of insignia identifying himself as a soldier to enjoy the conventions’ protections. As Article 4.1.6 puts it, prisoners of war include “Inhabitants of a non-occupied territory, who on the approach of the enemy spontaneously take up arms to resist the invading forces, without having had time to form themselves into regular armed units, provided they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war.” The Geneva Conventions of 1949 does not mention, nor provide protection to, civilians attacking foreign countries without openly carrying arms.
How much damage can Obama do before his term expires?
Tom Motherway