EFL - Read it all, weep for the guilty uh enemy combatants
LACKAWANNA, N.Y. â Even now, after the arrests and the anger and the world media spotlight, the mystery for neighbors in this old steel town remains this: Why would six of their young men so readily agree to plead guilty to terror charges, accepting long prison terms far from home? "The knuckleheads betrayed our trust, and weâre disgusted with their attendance at the camps in Afghanistan,â Mohammed Albanna, 52, a leader in the Yemeni community here, said of the six men who have admitted to attending an al Qaeda training camp two years ago. âBut the punishment doesnât fit the crime, or the governmentâs rhetoric. Itâs ridiculous.â
These idjits are trying to apply criminal, civil law to cases of war and terror attacks ON AMERICANS. Cry me a f&^king river
But defense attorneys say the answer is straightforward: The federal government implicitly threatened to toss the defendants into a secret military prison without trial, where they could languish indefinitely without access to courts or lawyers. That prospect terrified the men. They accepted prison terms of 6 1/2 to 9 years. âWe had to worry about the defendants being whisked out of the courtroom and declared enemy combatants if the case started going well for us,â said attorney Patrick J. Brown, who defended one of the accused. âSo we just ran up the white flag and folded. Most of us wish weâd never been associated with this case.â
| "I weep for you, the Walrus said..." |
The Lackawanna case illustrates how the post-Sept. 11, 2001, legal landscape tilts heavily toward the prosecution, government critics contend. Future defendants in terror cases could face the same choice: Plead guilty or face the possibility of indefinite imprisonment or even the death penalty. That troubles defense attorneys and some legal scholars, not least because prosecutors never offered evidence that the Lackawanna defendants intended to commit an act of terrorism.
| Except for the one they whacked in Yemen. Or was he just sight-seeing with a friend? |
âThe defendants believed that if they didnât plead guilty, theyâd end up in a black hole forever,â said Neal R. Sonnett, chairman of the American Bar Associationâs Task Force on Treatment of Enemy Combatants. âThereâs little difference between beating someone over the head and making a threat like that.â
Why not do both?
Why does the ABA have a task force on treatment of enemy combatants? Esprit Dâ Corps? |