Defeat or Victory???

facebook is great for quick comments but sometimes “What’s on your mind?” needs a few more words than facebook allows. That’s the case today!

The US media is full of the results of the trial of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani. For those who have forgotten – or don’t watch TV - Ghailani is the 36-year-old Tanzanian from Zanzibar who was reported to be Osama Bin Laden’s cook/driver. He was accused of 285 counts of assorted terrorism linked to the 1998 Al Qaeda bomb attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people. A US civilian court cleared him of almost every charge except that of conspiracy. This alone carries a 20-year jail term.

The pundits are now calling this a defeat for President Obama's drive to prosecute Guantanamo prisoners in American courts and calling for future trials in Military Tribunals. Others are suggesting that because Military Tribunals are also prohibited from recognizing evidence obtain by torture (or should I say, “enhanced interrogation”) there should be no future trails at all. Presumably, detainees, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-professed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, should just languish in cages at Guantanamo forever.

What some call “a rare defeat for the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York, which has a near perfect record in prosecuting terrorism cases”, is to me, a victory for the US justice system. The mark of a great society is not how it treats the privileged. It is how it treats its criminals and those condemned by society. A Federal jury found Ghailani guilty! The system worked! That is why I am so worried by the thought that those currently detained in cages in Guantanamo, Bagrhan Air Base or the “secret prisons” like those suspected to exist on Diego Garcia, might never have an opportunity for justice or to face their accusers. If that happens, then we are no better than the people we call terrorists.

Back in 1215 Magna Carta included the clause that “No Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any other wise destroyed; nor will We not pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the land”. This was extended to the concept of habeas corpus and is a foundation of all civilized legal systems. It protects you and me from being detained at the whim of the powerful. Our current government has continued the deception of the previous administration by claiming that habeas corpus does not apply to “enemy combatants” in a time of war. This “war” has been longer than WWI, WWII, or the Viet Nam War. There is no end in sight – or even a clear definition of what constitutes victory! We have made a war out of what was a major crime and awarded military status to criminals.

One of the first rules of “problem solving” is to correctly frame the problem. Our government framed 9/11 as a “war” rather than a criminal mass murder. It was our first and biggest mistake. For me, bringing Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani back to a criminal court was a step on the path back to sanity. A guilty verdict and 20-year minimum sentence from a free court was a victory for justice. It was proof that these people are not soldiers or martyrs. They are simply common criminals.

I should have ended on the last sentence, but I fear for my adopted country. Given the recent election results I fear the administration will take the easy route – and continue with the status quo: an unending and unwinnable war. That war will continue to rob us of our bravest and best, increase our debt and abandon the image that “the great communicator” once proclaimed the USA to be; “a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here”.