December 3, 2001

Johnnie Cochrane on Osama TV?

Through A Glass Darkly, by John Myers, Internet Photojournalist

I've been listening and reading for the past couple of weeks to the steadily rising drumbeat of the bleeding-heart liberals about President Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft's "hardline" tactics in the war on terror.

I put hardline in quotes because that's the word being used in the media to describe such planned Bush administration actions as military tribunals for terrorists charged in the Sept. 11 attacks on America's heartland.

Frankly, I don't think you could possibly get hardline enough in dealing with these terrorists when it comes to justice, which in my opinion should be handled by our military on the scene with the appropriate munitions.

Short of justice from the barrel of a gun in the hands of an American soldier, sailor, Marine or airman, I would accept similar actions by our Afghanistan allies, who have proven themselves to be quite capable of local justice.

But should any of the terrorists survive justice on the scene in combat, how can these bleeding hearts actually argue with a straight face that the men who killed thousands of innocent Americans in New York, Washington, D.C., and the Pennsylvania countryside should be afforded all the rights and privileges of normal criminals in the halls of justice of our courts system?

I heard one commentator describe these bleeding-heart cries as "shrill." I have heard hoot owls screech with more melodious tones than some of the so-called civil libertarians who are arguing for these terrorists' "rights."

Ashcroft is scheduled to appear Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he will confront criticism about some of the Justice Department's tactics to combat terrorism. That a former member of the Judiciary Committee, which Ashcroft was as a senator from Missouri, should be called on the carpet by this body to defend his actions against terrorists is ludicrous.

''We're going to do what we need to do to protect the American people,'' Ashcroft said Sunday on ABC's ''This Week'' when asked whether restrictions designed in the 1970s to protect religious and political groups from government monitoring are being eased.

''We will respect the rights of political freedom and religious freedom, and we are deeply committed to that,'' he said.

''But for so-called terrorists to gather over themselves some robe of clericism ... and claim immunity from being observed, people who hijack a religion and make out of it an implement of war will not be free from our interest.''

Ashcroft told ''Fox News Sunday'' that military tribunals would be limited to non-U.S. citizens and ''not just normal criminal activity, but war crimes.'' He refused to rule out military tribunals for any foreigners detained on American soil.

''Can you imagine apprehending a terrorist, either in the deserts of Afghanistan or on the way to the United States to commit a crime, and having to take them through the traditional justice system?'' Ashcroft asked. ''Reading them the Miranda rights? Hiring a flamboyant lawyer at public expense? Having sort of Osama television?''

I can see it now. Osama on Court TV, CNN and all the networks, with a dream team of Johnnie Cochrane, F. Lee Bailey and a host of lily-livered cohorts from the ACLU.

And of course, Ashcroft will be there as the prosecutor. But even if this nightmare of so-called justice were ever to occur, I can at least rest in this thought. There's no jury in America - short of 12 ACLU members - that would ever acquit Osama and his cohorts of pure bloody murder.