By GottaLaff
Sharp-eyed Lizz Winstead just alerted me to this piece by Adam Serwer, someone we both follow on Twitter. When she did, I was nearly speechless. For me, that's really something.
I went right over to read it, hoping I'd find something different than what she said to me. I'd hoped she misinterpreted it or read it wrong.
I've said before that if the administration chooses to retreat on trying Khalid Sheik Mohammed and the other September 11 conspirators in civilian court, he might not be brought to justice at all, given the constitutional vulnerability of the military commissions. Brookings' Ben Wittes and former Bush Office of Legal Counsel head Jack Goldsmith are recommending indefinite detention as a "solution" to the problem:
[...] [T]he politically draining fight about civilian vs. military trials is not worth the costs. It also distracts from more important questions in the legal war against terrorism.
"Not worth the costs"? We've already paid dearly for avoiding/ignoring our own system of justice. What could be more costly than trading our democracy for political expedience?
They write that "the political costs" of a trial "have become exorbitant" even "unaffordably high" and even a military commission "isn't worth the effort, cost and political fight it would take."
And who is driving up those political costs? Cowardly, self-serving fear mongers.
KSM and his cohorts are likely guilty of a terrible crime, and they should be brought to justice for it. Wittes and Goldsmith fail to properly consider the costs of holding KSM forever without trial -- the American people growing further acclimatized to a government whose definition of justice and commitment to the rule of law is increasingly capricious. That kind of long-term damage is immeasurable, and a far greater cost to the country than the short-term false outrage of McCarthyists and hypocrites.
Adam nailed it. This is unacceptable.
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