Courts take the side of the terrorist
John Podhoretz:
"A NEW York-based appeals court ruled yesterday that the Bush administration did not have the right to detain U.S. citizen Jose Padilla as an "enemy combatant" for his association with al Qaeda.
"The ruling is an undeniable black eye for the administration, which may well have overreached in its handling of this very peculiar case.
"A few hours later, a California-based appeals court ruled that the entire system whereby al Qaeda 'enemy combatants' have been detained at Guantanamo Bay is unconstitutional. This ruling is also an undeniable black eye - but not for the administration.
"Rather, the black eye belongs to the court that overreached itself in a most egregious way. But then, that's what this court - the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals - does routinely."
While I think both these rulings are wrong, the Ninth Cirucit ruling is jsut nuts, but it explains why liberals are not to be trusted with national security issues in a time of war. The attempt to treat prisoners taken froma battlefield as part of the criminal justice system is just goofy. In fact, the use of the criminal justice system to fight al Qaeda after the 93 bombing of the world trade center made the US more vulneralbe by keeping some of the information secret from the CIA and Defense Department because of Grand Jury secrecy and also by releasing sources and methods for tracking bin Laden when his satelite phone converasations were revealed. The criminal justice system is the wrong vehicle for fighting the war on terror in many insances and the decision on when it is not should be left to the executive branch of the government.
John Podhoretz:
"A NEW York-based appeals court ruled yesterday that the Bush administration did not have the right to detain U.S. citizen Jose Padilla as an "enemy combatant" for his association with al Qaeda.
"The ruling is an undeniable black eye for the administration, which may well have overreached in its handling of this very peculiar case.
"A few hours later, a California-based appeals court ruled that the entire system whereby al Qaeda 'enemy combatants' have been detained at Guantanamo Bay is unconstitutional. This ruling is also an undeniable black eye - but not for the administration.
"Rather, the black eye belongs to the court that overreached itself in a most egregious way. But then, that's what this court - the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals - does routinely."
While I think both these rulings are wrong, the Ninth Cirucit ruling is jsut nuts, but it explains why liberals are not to be trusted with national security issues in a time of war. The attempt to treat prisoners taken froma battlefield as part of the criminal justice system is just goofy. In fact, the use of the criminal justice system to fight al Qaeda after the 93 bombing of the world trade center made the US more vulneralbe by keeping some of the information secret from the CIA and Defense Department because of Grand Jury secrecy and also by releasing sources and methods for tracking bin Laden when his satelite phone converasations were revealed. The criminal justice system is the wrong vehicle for fighting the war on terror in many insances and the decision on when it is not should be left to the executive branch of the government.
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