A Failure To Prosecute

The failure to prosecute terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, after seven years of imprisonment, raises serious doubts about the validity of the detentions and provides America's enemies with a powerful propaganda tool.

None of the approximately 775 terrorism suspects held at the U.S. detention facility since 2001 has had a jury trial, Josh White of The Washington Post reported last week.

Of the 270 detainees now held, six are suspected of being coconspirators in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorism attacks. Yet, said White, U.S. officials do not believe that any of the Sept. 11 suspects will be brought to trial before the end of the Bush administration.

In the absence of a workable legal process,military officials have taken to simply releasing detainees or transferring them to other governments.

That effort has also backfired: A former detainee, transferred to Kuwait for trial and later acquitted, was involved a deadly suicide bombing in Iraq last month, the U.S. military confirmed last Wednesday.

Terrorism suspects should be strongly pursued. If the government has probable cause to detain them, they should be detained, and aggressively, but fairly, prosecuted. If they are found guilty, they should be incarcerated.

PROPER PROCEDURE THE EXCEPTION

That was the process used in trying and convicting 9/11 coconspirator Zacharias Moussaoui in 2006. Moussaoui was convicted in a U.S. federal court and is serving a life sentence in a Colorado prison.

Unfortunately, proper legal procedure is the exception in the Bush administration's war on terror.

Rather than use the U.S. court system to try most terrorism suspects, the administration and Congress created an unwieldy legal labyrinth at Guantanamo.

That system, established by the Military Commissions Act of 2006, "so far has been entangled by numerous motions that challenge its fairness and constitutionality," The Post's White reported. "Military officers presiding over the cases have had to make critical decisions on the fly, including some appealed to another court created by the same legislation."

Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch, told White that "it's incredibly hard to move through a system that lacks established rules and precedent. Every little detail ends up being contested, because it's an entirely new system of justice."

FUEL FOR PROPAGANDA WAR

Defense lawyers and human rights activists, said White, complain of military rules that allow coerced statements and hearsay as evidence and say the cases are not opened to the proper scrutiny.

"This is a self-inflicted wound," said Michael Berrigan, deputy chief defense counsel for the military commissions and a former Army lawyer. "It's a sad day in the history of this republic when we have abandoned the rule of law."

The extent of that wound is difficult to determine, but justice delayed is justice denied. And it's safe to assume that widespread reports of abuse of prisoners at Guantanamo and the years of detention without charges, access to lawyers or trials are helping fuel terrorists' ongoing anti-American propaganda war.

On April 30, the U.S. State Department released an annual global terrorism report that stressed the propaganda campaign being waged by al-Qaida.

"Throughout 2007, [al-Qaida] increased propaganda efforts seeking to inspire support in Muslim populations, undermine Western confidence, and enhance the perception of a powerful worldwide movement," the report said. "Terrorists consider information operations a principal part of their effort."

It wasn't that long ago that the American principles of freedom, equality and justice inspired the world to embrace and emulate the United States.

That moral leadership has been undermined by the delays and denial of justice at Guantanamo Bay.

If the U.S. government has reason to detain prisoners for years, it ought to have enough evidence to bring them to trial. That would demonstrate to Americans and the world that our government's interest is in prosecuting terrorists - not in holding suspects indefinitely.