It's late November and he really should be back in school (OK, maybe not), but apparently torture advocate John Yoo still has the Inquirer's megaphone. Many of us were hoping that Yoo's time inside Philadelphia's newshole had expired.
This week, he calls for the firing of Andy Reid....just kidding, it's about the 9/11 trials, what else did you expect One-Note Johnny to write about? As was the case with Yoo's last column a while back, he brings up most of the same wrongheaded notions we've already been discussing here for the last couple of weeks:
The only benefit of the trials mentioned, usually by unidentified administration sources, is improving America's international image. But America's place in the world did not suffer after World War II when President Harry S. Truman used military commissions throughout occupied Germany and Japan, or during the Civil War when President Abraham Lincoln used them to try Confederate spies and saboteurs. America's victories in those wars, sometimes against prevailing opinion, were far more important to its world standing. Defeating al-Qaeda will do far more for the United States' image than trying Mohammed in civilian court.
I've finally doped out Yoo's writing style, which is to toss so many half-truths and head-scratchers into one piece that you get exhausted trying to swat them all down. Never mind that the commissions in Germany and Japan were international in nature (with a major U.S. component, to be sure) and addressed war crimes as they were defined before the Yoo years, which is lethal and immoral behavior by leading figures in nation states engaged in declared wars, or that Lincoln's version of military commissions was actually struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1866, a process Yoo ought to know a little about, having received the judicial back of the hand from the Supremes himself.
The thing I'm most baffled by is his assertion that the Union fought the Civil War and the United States battled in World War II "against prevailing opinion." Really, John? Where on earth was opinion "prevailing" in favor of Hitler occupying most of Europe, Japanese aggression in Asia or keeping slavery in the American South long after it had been banned by England and other civilized nations? Hitler's bunker, maybe, and few Klan rallies, but where else?
I think that is thowaway line -- rather, it's an important insight into Yoo's worldview. The pride of Episcopal Academy, and his conservative ilk, seem to think that most of the world is against real American values -- even when Nazism or slavery is in play, which may be why they are so, so terrified that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed or his co-defendents will rise up in their Lower Manhattan courtroom and give some kind of "Manchurian Candidate"-eque speech that will convert the world to their ridiculous cause.
In fact, it looks like right-wingers' worst bed-wetting fears may come true:
The five men facing trial in the Sept. 11 attacks will plead not guilty so that they can air their criticisms of U.S. foreign policy, the lawyer for one of the defendants said Sunday.
Scott Fenstermaker, the lawyer for accused terrorist Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, said the men would not deny their role in the 2001 attacks but "would explain what happened and why they did it."
This article actually made me realize another advantage of the 9/11 criminal trial that hadn't even occurred to me at first. There are millions around the world who don't even think that it was al-Qaeda behind the attacks, that it was some kind of international Jewish conspiracy or an inside job by the Bush administration. Now, we will have al-Qaeda admitting its guilt in an American courtroom during a trial that will show Ali and his cronies as simply the small-minded, small-time civilian-killing cowards that they are. Only someone who thinks that "prevailing" opinion is against justice and decency wouldn't get that.
But that's probably not even the right question to be asking John Yoo, accomplice to torture and other criminal acts. The question is why are you still around?
Comment removed.- Comment removed.
NO DONT ENCOURAGE THE MORON !!!!— PAEnglish
"what else did you expect One-Note Johnny to write about?" Hey Will, isn't that kinda like the pot calling the kettle black?— WhatWouldTDDo- Comment removed.
- Comment removed.
- Comment removed.
Senator Leahy speaks for the leftists on the issue of what to do with captured terrorists: Mirandize them, and don't interrogate them, just try to get a conviction. Don't try to find out what they know, what their future schemes are, or who is in their organization. Just wait until after they vaporize a few hundred thousand people, and then try to convict them, and give them 25 years in prison. How feebleminded.— Mr. Smith- Comment removed.
- Comment removed.
- --snip-- Defeating al-Qaeda will do far more for the United States' image than trying Mohammed in civilian court. --snip-- Yoo does make a good point there. Because, you know, defeating Al Qaeda and trying KSM in civilian court are, clearly, mutually exclusive. No wonder Yoo is against the civilian court trials. Clearly, if we put KSM on trial in New York, we will immediately lose the war on terror. I would be one day after the trial begins, two at most, OBL will be sittin' phat in the ol' White House, and each and every American citizen will either be dead or standing in line to be beheaded. Be scared, rightwingers, be very, very scared.— Talking point sleuth
- Will, the problem is granting terror suspects-who are better viewed as "enemy combatants"-the same constitutional rights as American citizens. Terrorists are not afforded any protections under the Geneva Convention because they do not fight in uniform on the battlefield. There is no reason they shouldn't get the same punishment the government handed the German saboteurs landed on our shores in 1942. Read Ex Parte Quirin if you don't believe me. Several of the enemy combatants in Quirin turned themselves in to the FBI--and the government STILL executed them as enemy combatants. So please don't spot off that the precedent isn't there.— CC19102
- "Unlawful combatants are likewise subject to capture and detention, but in addition they are subject to trial and punishment by military tribunals for acts which render their belligerency unlawful...an enemy combatant who without uniform comes secretly through the lines for the purpose of waging war by destruction of life or property, are familiar examples of belligerents who are generally deemed not to be entitled to the status of prisoners of war, but to be offenders against the law of war subject to trial and punishment by military tribunals."— CC19102
- TPS, here's the Supreme Court case if you'd like to try and outslueth me: http://www.oyez.com/cases/1940-1949/1941/1941_1%20ORIG— CC19102
- Will- instead of whining and complaining 24 hours a day- write something positive about the Obama admin-.......oh that's right- there is nothing to write.......proceed with the moaning......— Manny Trillo
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
E-mail Will by clicking here.
PLEASE COMMENT WITH PASSION...
...but not with racial slurs, potentially libelous allegations, obscenities or other juvenile noise. Such comments will, at our discretion, be deleted in their entirety, and repeat offenders will be blocked from commenting. ALSO: Any commenter advocating killing any government official will be immediately banned.
Thanks.
- Atrios
- Kiko's House
- Suburban Guerilla
- Booman Tribune
- All-Spin Zone
- Philly (Dragonballyee)
- Afro-Netizen
- Rowhouse Logic
- MyDD
- Bad Attitudes
- Billmon
- iFlipFlop
- CorrenteWire
- upyernoz
- Tattered Coat
- Fables of the Reconstruction
- Slacktivist
- Citizen Mom
- The Next Mayor
- Philly Future
- Philadelphia Will Do
- Philebrity
- Young Philly Politics
- Phillyblog
- Welcome to Phillyville
- Phawker
- A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago
- Keystone Blog
- Philadelphia - America's Hometown
- BlankBaby
- Above Average Jane
- Phillyist
- Metroblogging Philadelphia
- The Clog
- Josh Marshall
- Daily Kos
- Juan Cole
- Oliver Willis
- Andy Borowitz
- War and Piece
- Wonkette
- BuzzFlash
- Raw Story
- Cursor
- Crooks and Liars
- Swing State Project
- Kevin Drum
- Talk Left
- AmericaBlog
- Hullabaloo
- Mad Kane
- Think Progress
- Jesus' General
- The Carpetbagger Report
- Majikthise
- Echidne of the Snakes
- David Sirota
- Glenn Greenwald
- TBogg
- Fire Dog Lake
- Taylor Marsh
- Matthew Yglesias
- Jon Swift
- Drudge Report
- Beer Leaguer
- The 700 Level
- Dick Polman
- Balls, Sticks and Stuff
- Shallow Center
- Philling Station
- Phillies Nation
- A Citizen's Blog
- The Good Phight
- Romenesko
- Editor and Publisher
- Pressthink
- Buzzmachine
- The Inksniffer
- Media Bloodhound
- Eat the Press
- Mickey Kaus
- Media (Huffington Post)
- Blinq
- The Corner
- Instapundit
- Andrew Sullivan
- Free Republic
- James Taranto
- Blonde Sagacity
- ScrappleFace
- Blogorrhea
- February
- January
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- January 2008
- News | Sports | Business | What's Happening | Restaurants & Food | Entertainment | Living | Marketplace | Jobs
