crazy joe...off wit der heads

[telebob x]

Execution first, trial later
Jon Carroll
Friday, December 14, 2001
©2001 San Francisco Chronicle

URL: 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/12/14/DD192913.DTL


OF THE SEVERAL small but real blessings we may be thankful for this season, 
one of them is that Joe Lieberman did not make it to the vice presidency. He 
is one nutball we definitely do not want a heartbeat away from the 
presidency.

(Of course, Dick Cheney is another -- and, by the by, doesn't it irritate 
you just a bit that we brilliant lefties forced Cheney to sell all his 
Halliburton stock just before the whole company took an Enron-like dive? 
Yes, we put big bucks in his pocket. He has a right to gloat.)

I was for Lieberman at the time. I thought he was good for the Jews. Many 
members of my family are Jewish, and there is much similarity between the 
Irish and the Jews -- we both are persecuted minorities who found succor in 
America; we both have deeply troubled homelands.

(The last line of "Annie Hall," the best Jewish-Irish movie ever made, 
describes in a nutshell the philosophy that binds our two great peoples: We 
not only embrace craziness, we have it for breakfast. I can live with that.)

Anyway, this Lieberman loon. Recently, in his role as a member of the Senate 
Armed Services Committee, he expressed outrage that Zacarias Moussaoui, the 
French citizen being held in New York on charges that he participated in the 
Sept. 11 conspiracy, was going to be tried in federal District Court rather 
than going before a military tribunal.

Lieberman's reasons? Those pesky rules of evidence that American courts have 
in place. The restrictions placed on the use of hearsay. The certainty that 
Moussaoui will have a lawyer, perhaps one of those "flamboyant lawyers" so 
feared by John Ashcroft, and that the lawyer might actually mount a defense 
of his client.

Lieberman said that Moussaoui was a "big fish" and that trying him in court 
was tantamount to letting him "get away."

ONE HATES TO be unpatriotic, but technically Moussaoui is innocent until 
proved guilty. He has been charged with the crimes, but we are not sure 
whether he committed the crimes. (Writing these columns is getting more like 
"Schoolhouse Rock.")

So a public trial is the time-honored, constitutionally mandated way we have 
of presenting the evidence against the accused. We use it when people murder 
people, when people rape people; we even depend on it for mass murderers 
like Timothy McVeigh. It is a form of hysteria to think that somehow it will 
be inadequate for this case.

The prosecution is being led by John Ashcroft. Think he's going to plea- 
bargain this one down?

Lieberman has apparently already convicted Moussaoui and wants nothing to 
stand in the way of his swift execution. He's satisfied with the evidence -- 
it is unclear how much of it he has seen -- and wants no un-Lieberman civil 
liberties to interfere with Lieberman justice being served.

Next up for Joe Lieberman: a rewrite of the Constitution to bring it more in 
line with Lieberman principles.

I HAVE A suspicion that these military tribunals may just tiptoe quietly 
away, never officially abandoned but never used either. The precise rules 
still have not been promulgated. Since Congress has never declared this war 
we are fighting, the precedents for the tribunals are a little shaky.

Plus, they are very unpopular with foreign governments, which have been 
lectured to for years by the United States about the illegality of star 
chamber proceedings. It's gonna be hard to get anyone extradited for a 
tribunal -- or, indeed, for any proceeding that involves the death penalty.

Besides, who's it going to be used for? Not John Walker -- he's an American 
citizen. Not Moussaoui. Osama bin Laden? A secret trial? That is not the 
route to the hearts and minds of 1.2 billion Muslims. So maybe the 
Constitution lucked out one more time. Cross your fingers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
And after the trial, maybe we could gather some very nice evidence.

I've been from Tucson to Tucumcari, Tehachapi to jcarroll@sfchronicle.com.

©2001 San Francisco Chronicle   Page D - 20

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