Litigation

Civilian Trial for Alleged Bomber Sparks Controversy

By Peter Hardin

The planned trial in a federal court of the accused Christmas Day bomber of an airliner has triggered high controversy mirroring the debate over trial venues for Guantanamo Bay terror detainees.

The debate continues to focus on whether terror suspects are enemy combatants who should be tried before military tribunals, or criminal defendants deserving the protections of U.S. courts. In the case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (photo), arrested in the aborted bombing attempt of a U.S.-bound airliner, President Obama’s chief counterterrorism adviser defended the venue decision.

John O. Brennan, the official, appeared on Sunday TV news shows and indicated the suspect would be offered a plea agreement to share information about al-Qaeda operations in Yemen, the Washington Post reported.

An outspoken critic of the administration’s decision was Sen. Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican. “If we had treated this Christmas Day bomber as a terrorist, he would have immediately been interrogated military-style, rather than given the rights of an American and lawyers,” the Post quoted DeMint as saying. “We probably lost valuable information.”

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, a Connecticut Independent and chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, called the decision “a very serious mistake” and said the suspect should have been treated as a “prisoner of war.”

Some of the conservative critics–including the Wall Street Journal and John Buchanan–are the subject of an article in the Washington Independent headlined, “Conservatives Attack Administration for Upholding Constitution.” Another critic is former Vice President Dick Cheney; the Washington Post offered a rejoinder to him and others in an editorial entitled, “Obama administration is right to prosecute alleged Detroit bomber in U.S. court.”

Here is what the Post editorial concluded:

“Most important, the Bush administration’s own experience has showed that holding suspects as enemy combatants creates more problems than it solves, because of the lack of due process and legal accountability.”

A broader look at some of the underlying issues involved, and examining recent trends, is available from the ABA Journal in an article headlined, “Common Ground: The ABA and the Obama administration are thinking more alike on detainee policy.” You can also learn more from earlier Gavel Grab posts and from Justice at Stake’s Web page on civil liberties in a time of terror.

Full post as published by The Gavel on January 04, 2010 (boomark / email).