The War On The War On Terror Continues

Andrew McCarthy in National Review Online:

The ACLU, HRW, and the Times are upset because dozens of people — they put the number at 70 predominantly Muslim men, but it's not a certain figure — were detained after the 9/11 attacks as "material witnesses," and thus "thrust into a Kafkaesque world of indefinite detention without charges, secret evidence, and baseless accusations." Some were held for weeks, and even months, and the majority were never even charged with a crime. Thus, the Times seethes, did "the Bush administration ... twist[] the American system of due process 'beyond recognition.'" Mind you, only the last two words quote from the ACLU/HRW study; the rest is what passes for "reporting" from the Gray Lady's Eric Lichtblau.

The studious hyperbole here signals the emptiness of this latest broadside.

In point of fact, material-witness detentions have been with us for decades, pursuant to a duly enacted law (Section 3144 of Title 18, U.S. Code). They were used countless times prior to 9/11. Hysteria aside, it should come as no surprise that these detentions are "without charges" since, by definition, the person is being detained as a witness, not being charged with a crime. What would require "baseless accusations" would be to hold such a person as a defendant — which is precisely what the government refrains from doing in detaining under the material-witness law. The proceedings, moreover, involve "secret evidence" only in the sense that all proceedings before the grand jury — whether they involve terrorism, unlawful gambling, or anything in between — are secret under federal law (specifically, Rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure). The Left, of course, well knows this since when investigative information about its champions seeps into the public domain, it routinely complains about the reprehensible violation of grand-jury secrecy rules — a useful diversion from dealing with the substance of any suspicions.

I'll say it again - our enemies understand us better than we understand ourselves. To defeat the United States, you don't have to defeat American forces in the field - you just need to undermine the American people's will to fight. Do that, and you'll have 10-20 years to do whatever you want as America plants its head in the sand.