Jewish World Review Nov. 16, 2005 / 14 Mar-Cheshvan,
5766
Linda Chavez
Reading Miranda rights and giving cozy beds to suspected Islamic terrorists won't tame or dissuade them
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Those on Capitol Hill and elsewhere who have been complaining of
U.S. policy on the detention of enemy combatants got a wake-up call this
week. It appears that one of the Iraqi men who bombed three Jordanian hotels
on Nov. 11, killing 57, may have been in U.S. custody in Iraq for a time but
was released. The U.S. military has confirmed that it picked up a man named
Safaa Mohammed Ali in November 2004 and held him for two weeks. When
authorities could find no reason to keep the man, they let him go. Lt. Col.
Barry Johnson told reporters, "A review of the circumstances of his capture
by the unit determined there was no compelling evidence that he was a threat
to the security of Iraq and he was therefore released."
Although officials can't confirm that the man they detained is
the same person as the bomber, despite identical names, the bomber's
relatives in Fallujah say he was. Indeed, all of the bombers, including a
fourth would-be bomber, a woman whose device did not detonate, are from the
Fallujah area. The female, who is now being held and questioned by Jordanian
security, is already providing ample evidence that these terrorists were
intimately involved in the Iraqi insurgency led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the
Jordanian-born terrorist who has been responsible for thousands of Iraqi and
American deaths.
It's impossible to know whether the attacks in Jordan could have
been prevented if the United States had been able to get more information
from the man they held last year. But one thing is certain: Treating enemy
combatants and suspected terrorists as if they are common criminals
deserving of all the protections of the American judicial system is
dangerous. The presumption of innocence is important in the criminal
context indeed, it is one of the foundations of our legal system. But in
a war in which our enemy doesn't wear uniforms, doesn't fight under a
foreign flag, and targets civilians as a primary military strategy, we
cannot afford to confer on the enemy the same rights and protections we
grant ordinary criminals or even military adversaries in a traditional
conflict.
That is not to say that we should adopt the tactics of our
enemies and we don't. No one is suggesting that if Zarqawi blows up women
and children or tortures and beheads his victims, we should do the same. We
are morally superior to our enemy and must remain so. But that doesn't mean
we have to confer on our enemies rights they have no legal, much less, moral
right to for example, formally extending the provisions of the Geneva
Conventions to those we capture. Short of torture, which President Bush has
made clear we will not use, we should be free to hold suspected terrorists
captured overseas for as long as necessary and to use harsh techniques to
elicit information.
Instead of backing the administration on this, however, Congress
shows no stomach for doing what's necessary. This week, the Senate
unanimously passed a defense policy bill that incorporated language first
proposed by Sen. John McCain establishing strict guidelines on interrogation
methods for detainees, as well as granting appeal rights to some defendants
convicted by military tribunals. Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., argued on the
Senate floor that such measures were necessary because "This is a war of
values," which we can win, "without sacrificing our values." Graham's
comments made for a nice sound bite but ignore the dirty reality on the
ground.
Zarqawi and his followers won't be dissuaded from blowing up
more wedding parties or putting improvised explosive devices into children's
toys because we suddenly start reading detainees their Miranda rights and
making sure that they're not subjected to sleep deprivation or kept in
isolation for too long. And it's naive to think that Muslim fanatics would
love us or even ignore us if only we'd leave Iraq. This war will
continue until one side emerges victorious and Congress had better get
serious to make sure it is not the jihadists.
JWR contributor Linda Chavez is President of the Center for Equal Opportunity. Her latest book is "Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics". (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.)
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