Legal Commentary

Karl Rove's Misguided Argument Against Federal Trials for 9/11 Defendants

By Jeralyn

Karl Rove has an op-ed in the Wall St. Journal taking issue with President Obama's view that one of the reasons Guantanamo should be closed is that it serves as a training ground for terrorists. Rove argues that al Qaeda doesn't view Guantanamo as a significant issue, and that trying detainees in federal court will play into al Qaeda's hands by making them martyrs.

It's the second point, the "martyr" issue, where Rove's argument falls far short of the mark and also weakens his first point.

New York juries in the past have beaten al Qaeda at the martyr game, by rejecting the death penalty and returning verdicts of life in prison. Once the terror defendants are whisked away to Supermax for life, we rarely hear from them again. No martyrdom, just decades of isolation. What have you heard from Zacarias Moussaoui or Richard Reid since they began serving their life sentences? Zip. They have been silenced, except for their occasional pro se court pleadings, which get little if any coverage. Any chance for martyrdom has been effectively eliminated. [More...]

Consider the Embassy Bombing trials for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania:

[t]he jury deadlocked after 10 members concluded that executing [them] could make [them] a martyr for the terrorist cause.

More here. And, it's not just how al Qaeda views Guantanamo, it's how the world views the U.S. because of Guantanamo. It's a black stain that with every passing day becomes harder to erase.

The 9/11 defendants, if tried by military commission and sentenced to death, like suicide bombers, will be hailed as martyrs by al Qaeda and their followers. If tried in federal court and given life sentences, they will be forgotten.

The world will never hear from them again. Life in prison, especially a place like Supermax, is a fate worse than death. The sentences may not serve as a deterrent, but they also won't be any use to al Qaeda as a recruiting device. There's no great fundamentalist cause being served through a life sentence to Supermax. It's death that brings glory in their view, not a lifetime of banishment.

Memo to Karl Rove: It's not federal criminal trials that make martyrs of terrorists, it's the death penalty. Shuttering Gitmo, trying the defendants in federal criminal courts and if convicted, imposing life sentences instead of death, would indeed be a setback to al Qaeda by preventing Guantanamo and its detainees from being used as a terrorist tool. Where Gitmo stands among al Qaeda's list of grievances against the U.S. is irrelevant -- neither here nor there, nor a good argument for keeping it open.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on December 30, 2010 (boomark / email).