Flight 253

Eric Holder should resign; AG admits he ordered Abdulmuttalab tried in civilian court

AG Eric Holder said he knows we are at war during his November 18, 2009 testimony before the Senate Judicary Committee concerning his decision to prosecute Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other four 9/11 conspirators in federal court. Unfortunately, Mr. Holder does not walk that talk.

Attorney General Eric Holder says he made the decision to charge the Christmas Day terror suspect in the civilian system with no objection from all the other relevant departments of the government. In a letter to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, the attorney general says that the FBI told its partners in the intelligence community on Christmas Day and again the next day that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab would be charged criminally.

Mr. Holder apparently misunderstands his oath of office:

‘I (name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.’

Nowhere within those words or our Constitution are the enemies of the United States afforded the rights of American citizens. It is reckless to unilaterally provide a fair fight to those waging war against our troops abroad and civilians here at home.

Mr. Holder should resign and President Obama should replace him with someone with no interest in defending the enemy’s “rights.”

Update: Stephen Hayes at The Weekly Standard blog has more on this in his Obama Vs. Holder post:

In an interview with 60 Minutes last spring, President Obama discussed the handling of captured terrorists and challenged those who claimed the “American system of justice was not up to the task of dealing with these terrorists.” Obama said: “I fundamentally disagree with that. Now — do these folks deserve Miranda rights? Do they deserve to be treated like a shoplifter — down the block? Of course not.”

David Rivkin and Marc Thiessen: A Tale of Two Terrorists (AG Holder sends a WOT canary in to destroy the Bush doctrine)

Fn 12 on page 59 of the DOJ’s December 18, 2009 rebuttal to Ghailani’s Speedy Trial Motion to dismiss his case in federal court. Click to enlarge

In their Wall Street Journal op-ed today, David B. Rivkin and Marc Thiessen understated the significance of the Bush doctrine arguments filed on December 18, 2009 by the Department of Justice and used to rebut the Speedy Trial Motion to dismiss the federal case against Ahmed Ghailani. Surely U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara did not file contrary to the direction of Attorney General Eric Holder.

Mr. Bharara is no doubt a dedicated public servant. I have great personal faith in his abilities, loyalty to our Nation, and willingness to do all that he can to successfully prosecute Ahmed Ghailani to the fullest extent of the law. That said, Ghailani is President Barack Obama’s canary for the federal prosecution of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, his 9/11 co-conspirators, and perhaps 40 more detainees currently being held at Guantanamo Bay. For the criminalization of the war against terror to succeed, Ghailani’s motion must fail. It is ironic and insidious that Obama and Holder must first defend what they seek to destroy:

On Dec. 18, 2009, days before the Christmas attack, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, made a secret filing in federal district court that was aimed at saving the prosecution of Ahmed Ghailani, another al Qaeda terrorist. Ghailani is facing charges for helping al Qaeda bomb U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Ghailani argues that those charges should be dropped because lengthy CIA interrogations have denied him his constitutional right to a speedy trial.

Mr. Bharara, on behalf of the Justice Department, filed a memorandum with the court stating that Ghailani’s claims are dangerous and off the mark. Interrogating terrorists must come before criminal prosecution, he wrote in language so strong that even a redacted version of his filing (which we have obtained) serves as a searing indictment of the administration’s mishandling of Abdulmutallab.

“The United States was, and still is, at war with al Qaeda,” Mr. Bharara argued. “And because the group does not control territory as a sovereign nation does, the war effort relies less on deterrence than on disruption—on preventing attacks before they can occur. At the core of such disruption efforts is obtaining accurate intelligence about al Qaeda’s plans, leaders and capabilities.” … READ THE REST

Review again the image above and think about Flight 253 bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab. Then read this fuller excerpt from the DOJ’s rebuttal. It begins with the last paragraph on page 46 (B. Discussion) and runs through the partially transcribed paragraph on page 50. (Except where clarification was needed, citations and footnote numbering were omitted from this transcription):

First, the Government’s interest in protecting national security justified the delay in this case. The Supreme Court has stated that is “‘obvious and unarguable’ that no governmental interest is more compelling than the security of the Nation.” If vindicating the Government’s interest in, for example, presenting a more effective case by seeking to persuade a co-defendant to testify against the defendant is a “valid” reason for delay, it follows that this most compelling of interests is “valid” as well.

Indeed, delay is more justifiable in this case than when the Government delays a trial to persuade a co-defendant to testify against the defendant (an in Vassell). In both cases, the defendant’s trial is intentionally delayed by the Government. But it is only in the Vassell-type situation that the Government delays the proceedings in order to put the defendant himself in a worse position at trial. The possibility that the delay will harm an individual’s defense at trial is the core concern of the Speedy Trial Clause, and the Vassell-type situation skirts close to this concern in that situation, then surely it may be put off in a case such as this — when the purpose for the delay was not to enhance the chances of convicting the defendant, but rather to obtain information that could be used to prevent future terrorist attacks against the nation by incapacitating others…

The defendant attempts to discredit the importance and relevance of national security in this case by calling it “an intentionally amorphous concept that can fluctuate depending on the specific aims that the Government seeks to protect.” But, however vague or overstated the invocation of national security could conceivably be in other contexts, there is nothing “amorphous” about the concept as applied here, and no question that the strength of the Government’s interest was at its zenith in this case. The defendant was a longstanding al Qaeda terrorist, and al Qaeda is the group responsible for the brutal murder of thousands of American citizens here and abroad. The United States was, and still is, at war with al Qaeda. And because the group does not control territory as a sovereign nation does, the war effort relies less on deterrence than on disruption — on preventing attacks before they occur. At the core of such disruption efforts is obtaining accurate intelligence about al Qaeda’s plans, leaders, and capabilities. [emphasis added mine]

In these circumstances, the Executive Branch’s decision initially to treat the defendant, a foreign national captured abroad in an al Qaeda safe house after a 14-hour gun battle, as an intelligence asset — to detain him abroad in order to detain vital, real-time intelligence about al Qaeda — warrants considerable deference. As the Supreme Court explained only last year:

In considering both the procedural and substantive standards used to impose detention to prevent acts of terrorism, proper deference must be accorded to the political branches. Unlike the President and some designated Members of Congress, neither the Members of the Court nor most federal judges begin the day with briefings that may describe new and serious threats to our Nation and its people. The law must accord the Executive substantial authority to apprehend and detain those who pose a real danger to our security.

Boumediene; see also e.g. United States v. Moussaoui … cf. Central Intelligence Agency v. Sims.

The pdf of the DOJ’s rebuttal is in two parts, here and here, if you wish to download it.