Paine on the Moussaoui Trial and the Sixth Amendment
Aggravating Hiro, take 2: I know you don’t know who George Paine is, and you don’t want to, but you really should. Anyway, he’s got another great piece: The Constitution and justice. It covers the latest depressing developments in the Moussaoui trial, where the government is taking the position that no, it really doesn’t have to give him the right to confront and question the witnesses against him. And if, as seems likely, the judge tosses the government’s case on Sixth Amendment grounds, the government intends to just turn around and charge Moussaoui as an “enemy combatant,” and try him in a military tribunal, where they won’t be hampered by such “technicalities”.
I am so not going to miss John Ashcroft when he’s forcibly returned to private life. And please, may enough of my fellow citizens join me in my sense of outrage that that happens sooner rather than later.
Hm. Interesting question: Which news item disgusts me more with what is going on with my country today? This one, or the one I just posted? Hard to say, really. I could make a case for either one, for different reasons.
January 11th, 2005 at 7:22 am
yourfat