Allan Gerson: Lessons From Nuremberg
[Allan Gerson, a former deputy-assistant attorney general and counselor for international affairs in the Reagan administration, is involved in the representation of 9/11 families in their lawsuit against various Saudi financial institutions.]
The Obama administration’s remarkable decision to hold the trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other masterminds of 9/11 in a civil court in New York, rather than use the conventional military tribunal structure, rests on one fundamental pillar: It is the moral thing to do. It will demonstrate to friends and foes alike that unlike the Bush administration, the Obama White House is truly committed to the rule of law.
Across the globe, or so the scenario goes, viewers will be riveted to TV screens as they witness American justice: the application of the full panoply of procedural rights of due process accorded to the ordinary criminal now applied, for the first time, to the evildoers of 9/11.
In fact, a trial in New York is likely to have exactly the opposite effect, demonstrating that the decision to bypass the military tribunal apparatus lacks any moral force. Moral force, as articulated in prevailing international law nearly since its inception, requires that we distinguish acts in times of war from those in times of peace. In times of war, the balance shifts. Individual civil liberties can be curtailed in order to fend off imminent harm. Military tribunals have traditionally been set up for this purpose, distinguishing the ordinary criminal who acts outside the law from the soldier who abides by a code of conduct at odds with our own core beliefs...
... The Obama administration’s remarkable decision to hold the trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other masterminds of 9/11 in a civil court in New York, rather than use the conventional military tribunal structure, rests on one fundamental pillar: It is the moral thing to do. It will demonstrate to friends and foes alike that unlike the Bush administration, the Obama White House is truly committed to the rule of law.
Across the globe, or so the scenario goes, viewers will be riveted to TV screens as they witness American justice: the application of the full panoply of procedural rights of due process accorded to the ordinary criminal now applied, for the first time, to the evildoers of 9/11.
In fact, a trial in New York is likely to have exactly the opposite effect, demonstrating that the decision to bypass the military tribunal apparatus lacks any moral force. Moral force, as articulated in prevailing international law nearly since its inception, requires that we distinguish acts in times of war from those in times of peace. In times of war, the balance shifts. Individual civil liberties can be curtailed in order to fend off imminent harm. Military tribunals have traditionally been set up for this purpose, distinguishing the ordinary criminal who acts outside the law from the soldier who abides by a code of conduct at odds with our own core beliefs...
Read entire article at NYT
The Obama administration’s remarkable decision to hold the trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other masterminds of 9/11 in a civil court in New York, rather than use the conventional military tribunal structure, rests on one fundamental pillar: It is the moral thing to do. It will demonstrate to friends and foes alike that unlike the Bush administration, the Obama White House is truly committed to the rule of law.
Across the globe, or so the scenario goes, viewers will be riveted to TV screens as they witness American justice: the application of the full panoply of procedural rights of due process accorded to the ordinary criminal now applied, for the first time, to the evildoers of 9/11.
In fact, a trial in New York is likely to have exactly the opposite effect, demonstrating that the decision to bypass the military tribunal apparatus lacks any moral force. Moral force, as articulated in prevailing international law nearly since its inception, requires that we distinguish acts in times of war from those in times of peace. In times of war, the balance shifts. Individual civil liberties can be curtailed in order to fend off imminent harm. Military tribunals have traditionally been set up for this purpose, distinguishing the ordinary criminal who acts outside the law from the soldier who abides by a code of conduct at odds with our own core beliefs...
... The Obama administration’s remarkable decision to hold the trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other masterminds of 9/11 in a civil court in New York, rather than use the conventional military tribunal structure, rests on one fundamental pillar: It is the moral thing to do. It will demonstrate to friends and foes alike that unlike the Bush administration, the Obama White House is truly committed to the rule of law.
Across the globe, or so the scenario goes, viewers will be riveted to TV screens as they witness American justice: the application of the full panoply of procedural rights of due process accorded to the ordinary criminal now applied, for the first time, to the evildoers of 9/11.
In fact, a trial in New York is likely to have exactly the opposite effect, demonstrating that the decision to bypass the military tribunal apparatus lacks any moral force. Moral force, as articulated in prevailing international law nearly since its inception, requires that we distinguish acts in times of war from those in times of peace. In times of war, the balance shifts. Individual civil liberties can be curtailed in order to fend off imminent harm. Military tribunals have traditionally been set up for this purpose, distinguishing the ordinary criminal who acts outside the law from the soldier who abides by a code of conduct at odds with our own core beliefs...