PrintJune 18, 2008
Obama Advisers Say Bin Laden Can Appeal to US Courts
If we capture him alive, Osama Bin Laden will be able to appeal to US courts -- the same US courts that protects the rights of American citizens and now, evidently, the terrorists who are trying to kill us. Bill Sammon of the Washington Times:
Barack Obama's foreign policy advisers said Tuesday that Osama bin Laden, if captured, should be allowed to appeal his case to U.S. civilian courts, a privilege opposed by John McCain.
Responding to questions from The Examiner, Sen. John Kerry and former White House counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke said bin Laden would benefit from last week's Supreme Court decision giving terrorism suspects habeas corpus, the right to appeal their military detention to civilian courts."If he were to be brought back," Clarke said of bin Laden, "the Supreme Court ruling holds on the right of habeas corpus."Kerry, who applauded the Supreme Court ruling, said it will be carried out by whichever candidate wins the presidency."The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that they have those rights," he said. "If John McCain were president, he would have to give them those rights."Randy Scheunemann, McCain's senior foreign policy adviser, said those rights should not be extended to bin Laden or the hundreds of terrorism suspects being held by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
In one of the greatest ironies in history, the men who fought and died for Constitutional protections for American citizens must now fight and die so that the people who killed them are covered by the same rights.
What a country.
And what a candidate. The entire planet has been granted rights under the American Constitution thanks to the Supreme Court. Why should we even bother to call it "The American" Constitution anymore when any fanatic with a grudge can kill a lot of Americans and be assured that ACLU lawyers and the far left activist attorneys who specialize in this sort of thing will take up their case?
It probably won't apply to Bin Laden since it is almost a certainty the terrorist will never be taken alive. But it hardly matters when Obama advisers make it plain that terrorists are no different than any other purse snatcher and are deserving of rehabilitation in one of our fine federal facilities -- free to proselytize their hatred to other prisoners.
Change we can believe in, alright.
