As I have posted previously regarding the cases of Jose Padilla, Ali Marri. and Zacarias Moussaoui, the Justice Department's increasing use of the threat of declaring a person an "enemy combatant" without evidence or cause, as a tool of coercion rather than anything to do with fighting terrorism or protecting America, continues.
According to an article in the Washington Post in the case of the so-called "Lackawanna Six" the defendants have all copped a plea and received relatively light sentences, so that they can avoid the risk of being declared "enemy combatants" and shipped off to Guantanamo to spend an indefinite amount of the rest of their lives living like caged rats.
I am reminded of the ludicrous make-believe crimes that Ed Meese created during his term as Attorney General, mostly having to do with drugs and kiddie porn, which were designed for no other clear purpose than to ilicit "confessions" of guilt from the accused in order to prevent themselves from being charged with ever-more heinous crimes with ever-more severe penalties.
The "give up now and we'll go easy on you" mentality in American justice is shameful, no simpler word for it. If a man is to be charged with a crime, let him be charged and tried and be done with it -- that is supposed to be the entire point of our system of justice. Enough of this playground bully horseshit.
Phaedrus
According to an article in the Washington Post in the case of the so-called "Lackawanna Six" the defendants have all copped a plea and received relatively light sentences, so that they can avoid the risk of being declared "enemy combatants" and shipped off to Guantanamo to spend an indefinite amount of the rest of their lives living like caged rats.
I am reminded of the ludicrous make-believe crimes that Ed Meese created during his term as Attorney General, mostly having to do with drugs and kiddie porn, which were designed for no other clear purpose than to ilicit "confessions" of guilt from the accused in order to prevent themselves from being charged with ever-more heinous crimes with ever-more severe penalties.
The "give up now and we'll go easy on you" mentality in American justice is shameful, no simpler word for it. If a man is to be charged with a crime, let him be charged and tried and be done with it -- that is supposed to be the entire point of our system of justice. Enough of this playground bully horseshit.
Phaedrus
