Sabotaging justice

Even as President Bush is running ads that seek to capitalize on the 9/11 tragedy for political gain, the Bush administration is thwarting criminal prosecution of terrorists accused of being involved in the attacks.

According to a New York Times editorial, the Bush administration is refusing to allow criminal defendants - both here and abroad - access to Ramzi bin al-Shibh, allegedly one of the masterminds of the attack. As a result, much of the case against Zacarias Moussaoui - the only person facing trial in the US for involvement in the attacks - has been thrown out, and in Germany, one defendant was acquitted and another has had his conviction overturned.

Moussaoui may still end up being tried by a military tribunal here in the states, but

...the German decisions serve as a reminder that Al Qaeda is a global enterprise whose dismantling will require arrests and coordinated law enforcement in many countries. Terrorists arrested in Europe will not be turned over to American military tribunals seen by the outside world as kangaroo courts.

As I've mentioned before, I'm no fan of conspiracy theories, but the Bush administration has so consistently done everything they can to block any true investigation into the tragedy that it has the effect of making some of those theories seem like maybe they're not quite so far-fetched after all. Between

• the initial difficulty in even getting an investigation started,



• Bush's initial appointment of Henry Kissinger to head the commission,



• the administration's refusal to allow the 9/11 investigative committee to have full access to all necessary documents regarding what the administration might have known prior to the attacks,



• Bush's refusal to testify before the commission,



• their refusal to allow defendants access to one of their chief accusers even though that refusal prevents the US and other countries from being able to successfully prosecute participants in planning and/or carrying out the attacks,



• the indefinite detention of "suspected terrorists" and "enemy combatants" without any of the rights they're supposed to be guaranteed by our Constitution (including access to a lawyer, the ability to confront their accusers, and the right to a speedy trial, among others) and



• the use of secret military tribunals,

it becomes almost impossible to not wonder what the Bush administration is hiding. Maybe it's nothing, but it keeps getting harder and harder to convince myself of that.

Posted by thorswitch at March 6, 2004 04:57 PM | TrackBack