Obama's Lawfare Insanity - The Capture & Planned Civilian Trial Of Suleiman Abu Ghaith

Here we go again. The far left is utterly determined to conflate warfare with criminal law. In this instance, the U.S., with the help of Turkey and Jordan, recently captured Suleiman Abu Ghaith, bin Laden's son in law and a man who took part in al Qaeda's war on the U.S. both before and after 9-11. Further, it is believed that Ghaith may have information about al Qaeda ties to Iran. And yet, Ghaith was taken in by the FBI, not the CIA, with preliminary indications being that the capture occurred in the past week. Eric Holder announced today that Ghaith is already in the U.S., that will be arraigned Friday in a NY District Court - where he will of course lawyer up - and that Ghaith will be tried in that court on federal criminal charges.

Ghaith is not an American citizen, nor was he captured in America. The violent acts in which he took part were not criminal acts, they were acts of war against our nation. He is a very high value target, likely of great intelligence value. We have an entire system set up for such individuals, or at least we used to have one.

Step one would be to take all the time necessary to interrogate this individual over a matter of weeks or months. Intelligence is the life blood of any war, and it is of particular importance to a shadow war against an amorphous enemy spread across numerous countries.

Step two, only to be taken when the individual is of no more intelligence value, would be to plant him in Gitmo and subject him to a military tribunal if and only if the government considers that he deserves punishment beyond holding him until the end of hostilities.

All of the arguments for NOT trying a foreign terrorist for acts of war in our civilian courts apply in full force to this act of treachery from Obama and his DOJ. One, this man should be being interrogated by the CIA for all he is worth, not discussing his case in comfort with his private attorney. Two, our Courts are not set up handle cases involving secret - and possibly top secret - evidence, nor are they set up to receive testimony from individuals whose identity must remain unknown. Three, conflating criminal law with the law of war sets a dangerous precedent. The laws that govern war are set out internationally and are based in part on recognition of the practical realities of war. Federal criminal law places much greater restraints on our government in recognition of our unique Constitutional protections. Ghaith has no claim whatsoever to rights based on our Constitution.

This is just insanity. Thankfully, the budget is coming up shortly. The House should defund the Justice Department until Ghaith is sent to Gitmo and his case transferred to the military tribunals.

Just a final note. The hypocrisy and false moralizing of the Obama regime on virtually everything to do with the war on terror is stomach turning. We can't do enhanced interrogations on terrorists, but Obama claims unilateral authority to assassinate such people. We can't try terrorists through the military tribunal system, even though using the civilian courts would pose dangers to our intelligence gathering. The only thread that ties these policies together is that they are the most politically palatable for Obama, not that they are in any sense what's best for our country.

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