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Recent
Stories
June
9, 2003
Alex
Coolman
Male Rape in US Prisons
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft is Coming!
Lee
Sustar
Is Iran Next?
Agustin
Velloso
Equatorial Guinea: Few Rich, Many
Poor
Gila
Svirsky
Some Lives Are Worth Less Than Others
Dr. Gerry
Lower
Human Worth in Bush's America
Michael
S. Ladah
A True Liberation
Ishmael Reed
Iraqi Slaughter, Mayhem and Plunder
Steve
Perry
How to Beat Bush, part 1
June
7 / 8, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
The Terrible Truth
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Going Critical: Bush's War on Endangered Species
Joanne
Mariner
Ashcrofts Sides with Torturers
Steven
Sherman
A Different Theory of Everything
Ron Jacobs
Sports, Politics and the 60s
M.
Shahid Alam
Pauperizing the Periphery
Amelia
Peltz
If This is the Road, I'd Rather be Lost
Shelton
Hull
Another Powell, Another Capitulation
Binoy Kampmark
Nuclear Deterrence and North Korea
Ben
Tripp
A Fish Story
Sen. Robert
Byrd
Where is the Outrage?
Robin
Philpot
Congo Distortions
Julie Hilden
Murder and the Matrix
Laura
Flanders
An Interview with Isabel Allende
David Lindorff
The Last Byline
Adam
Engel
Talk Dirty Scary Monsters
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Reiss, Guthrie, Albert and Hamod
June
6, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft the Insatiable
David
Krieger
The Big Lie
Ramzy
Baroud
Sharon and the Myth of the Peacemakers
Anthony
Gancarski
Sharansky: "Crucifixion is a Privilege"
Sam
Hamod
His Own Little Country
Sean Carter
Why Indict Martha Stewart and Not Ken Lay?
David
Lindorff
Cracks in the Consensus
Stew Albert
Ari's Great Set
Steve
Perry
Greens and
Moore in 04? No
June
5, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Pools of Fire: The Looming Nuclear
Nightmare in the Woods of North Carolina
Imraan
Siddiqi
Ann Coulter's Foul Mouth
Michael
Leon
Clinton, Reno & Waco: Remember What They've Done
Robert
Jensen
Texas Pledge Law Undermines Democracy
Ann Harrison
Rosenthal is Free, But the Fight isn't Over
Paul
Dean
How You Can Be Deliriously Happy in the Age of Bush
Gary Leupp
When Spooks Speak Out
Website
of the Day
Evidence in Black and White?
June
4, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Federal Judge Blinks; Rosenthal
Walks
Lisa
Walsh Thomas
The Isaiah Crowd: The Threat of Neo-Christianity
Jason
Leopold
Manufacturing the Iraq War
John Chuckman
Blackmail as Policy
Mazin
Qumsiyeh
Summit: Peace or Pretense?
Issam Nashashibi
Sharon's Sword of Damocles
Steve
Perry
Wolfowitz of Arabia: the VF interview transcript
June
3, 2003
Chris
Floyd
Copycat Killers: Bush, Jakarta and
the Slaughter in Aceh
Jason
Leopold
Wolfowitz Tells All
Elaine
Cassel
We Interrupt Your Normal Show to Bring You an Important Message
from Michael Powell: "Go to Hell, Americans!"
Tom
Crumpacker
The Politics of US Cuba Policy
William
S. Lind
Fourth Generation Warfare in Iraq
Sam
Hamod
The Final Brick in the Wall
Uri
Avnery
The Altalena Affair
Hammond
Guthrie
Stepping into Some Deep DARPA
Steve
Perry
The WashTimes'
al-Qaeda nuke "exclusive"
June
2, 2003
Arundhati
Roy
Day of the Jackals
Norman
Madarasz
Behind the Neo-Con Curtain: Plato,
Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom
Alain
Frachon and Daniel Vernet
The Strategist and the Philosopher: Strauss and Wohlstetter
Anthony
Gancarski
Anti-Imperialism, Then & Now
Standard
Schaefer
Wasted at the Pentagon
Jason
Leopold
Rocky's Advice to the Dems
Guthrie
& Albert
HUAC 58 Years Letter
Steve
Perry
The Politics of Terror Alerts
May
31, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
A Whiner Called Horowitz
Gary Leupp
The Frauds of War
Dave
Lindorff
Clinton, Bush, Lies and Impeachment
Tom Stephens
Does It Matter that the Bush Administration Lied?
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
Who Is Next?
Joanne
Mariner
Trivializing Terrorism
Wayne
Madsen
Ayatollah Ashcroft's Busy Week
Larry Magnuson
Is a Television a Radio or a Billboard?
Elaine
Cassel
Wake Up, America!
Gila Svirsky
Waiting for the Lament to End
Susan
Davis
Kitchen Dreams
Chris Clarke
Barbra Streisand: Environmental Hypocrite
Chris
Floyd
Bush Locates Source of World Evil: God
Adam Engel
Gravity's End Zone
Poets'
Basement
Reiss, Guthrie, Orloski, Albert
May
30, 2003
Ben
Tripp
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Agenda
Neve
Gordon
The Bad Fence
Todd
Steiner
Endangered Ocean
Robert
Freeman
Bush's Tax Cuts: a Form of National Insanity
Sean
Carter
Utah Gets Fired Up for Executions
Daniel
Bacher
How Bush's War Violated International Laws
Tariq
Ali
Re-Colonizing Iraq
Steve
Perry
Bush Wars
Web Log
May
29, 2003
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Jason
Leopold
Despite Thin Intelligence Reports,
US Plans Overthrow of Iran Regime
Ron
Jacobs
Popular Uprising, Inc.
Michelle
Ciaccorra
Bush's Nuclear Policy: Do As I Say, Not As I Do
Yves Engler
The Economics of Health Care in
America: Pay More to Die Sooner
Kimberly
Blaker
Vouchers for Jesus
Harry
Browne
Stakeknife: Britain's Army Spy at
the Top of the IRA
Stew
Albert
Cops of the World
Steve Perry
Greens 04: In or Out?
Hot Stories
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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June
11, 2003
Michael Chertoff:
Ashcroft's Top Gremlin
Spreading
Mischief from DoJ to the Federal Bench
By ELAINE CASSEL
I have been watching John Ashcroft so long that
it is getting to be a little boring. Promising to use all available
means to "fight terrorism," prosecuting every violation
of law "to the fullest extent of the law," desperately
wanting the death penalty for every possible offense, and, according
to his remarks last week before the Senate Judiciary committee,
wanting laws changed to impose the death penalty for even more
offenses. Ashcroft changes law and procedure by signing Executive
Orders, and yes, he can get away with that unless a court stops
him. So far, no court has. Some congressional members, damn few,
express mild dismay at his tactics, such as locking up resident
aliens after 9/11 and holding some of them for months without
access to family or lawyers (or charges), then deporting many
on the most technical visa violations (some of them the fault
of INS, over which he has authority). It never ends-the Ashcroft
watch. It only gets worse, and more frightening.
But now I have a new gremlin to watch,
someone who is as intent on undermining the law and Constitution
as Ashcroft. I am referring to the man behind the criminal prosecution
of terrorists, Michael Chertoff. Chertoff, former chief of the
Justice Department's criminal division, and a scary looking guy
if ever there was one, has been elevated to the level of Court
of Appeals judge--the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, whose jurisdiction
includes Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. What's so scary
about Michael? Well, besides having no judicial experience and
being a right-ring radical who does not believe in the Constitution
and wants to rewrite federal law and rules of procedure on an
ad hoc, case by case basis, as it suits him, nothing I guess.
A good place to look for Chertoff's legal
philosophy is in the prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui , now
taking place in the Eastern District of Virginia. Chertoff is
not the prosecutor of course, Paul McNulty of the Eastern District
is. But Chertoff is McNulty's boss and he is calling the shots.
So Chertoff argued the government's case in the super secret
hearing before the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals last week. The
government is trying to block trial judge Leonie Brinkema's ruling
that Moussaoui and his lawyers have access to the government's
star witnesses against him. The government has refused and appealed.
Judge Brinkema, who still believes in the Constitution, rightly
ruled that to deny Moussaoui that access is a blatant violation
of the Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses.
Brinkema indicates that she will not
be a party to making exceptions to the Constitution on a case-by-case
basis. She, in effect, suggests that maybe Justice better take
Moussaoui to Guantanamo and try him there in secret, in the military
tribunals they set up. Easy there to not only try him, but convict
him, and execute him . So why is the government insisting on
keeping him in federal court?
I have the answer, and it lies in Chertoff.
Chertoff's goal, I believe, and the goal of Ashcroft and Bush
in supporting this prosecution in federal court, is to subject
federal trials, as they see fit, to ad hoc exemptions of whatever
laws (be they constitutional, criminal code, or rules of procedure)
that will suit their purposes. Their grand scheme is to ultimately
cripple and dismantle the federal courts as we know them, one
brick at a time.
Support for this theory of mine includes
their prosecution of attorney Lynne Stewart, for, in effect,
zealously representing her client; rules created by Ashcroft
that subject attorneys and their clients to surveillance, be
they under secret wiretaps issues by the secret FISA court or
monitoring of all contacts in prison settings. These procedures
came about by fiat from Ashcroft. They make any attorney who
represents someone charged with an act of "terrorism"
(and a terrorist crime is one defined by Bush and Ashcroft-that
is an ad hoc determination, as well).
The Moussaoui case has many examples
of legal changes. Moussaoui and even his attorneys (!) cannot
receive all documents related to the case, because of "national
security" interests. Witnesses may appear in court behind
screens (!) so that they cannot be seen. And, the Fourth Circuit
hearing last week was closed-closed-for the first time in history.
Under Ashcroft we have had secret warrants (or no warrants),
secret hearings denying bail, secret trials, and now secret appellate
court arguments. Next, we can expect the Supreme Court to be
closed, can't we?
The 4th Circuit hearing was close to
all but those "screened" and approved by the Justice
Department, the Defense Department, and the CIA. The judge presiding
over the hearing told the "security" official to jump
up if any attorney arguing the case said anything that would
jeopardize national security-so that the room could be cleared!
Then, as will happen in a trial, the government can proceed out
of the presence of the defendant or his attorney. Oh, of course,
Moussaoui was not allowed to be at the appellate hearing last
week. How is that for a legal system.
Chertoff argued to the 4th Circuit that
the Court could not order the government to produce its start
witness against Moussaoui because (are you ready?) he, the witness,
is out of the country at an undisclosed location. True, but the
witness is in the custody of the federal government! The out-of-the
country argument is a sham. This is similar to a ruling recently
by the federal court that ruled that Guantanmo Bay prisoners
had no access to federal courts for claims that they be charged
or release because-they are out of the country!! Of course, in
federal custody, but that does not matter.
The absurd arguments contrary to the
letter and spirit of all that not only the Constitution, but
current federal law provides, is appalling and shameful. Chertoff
will be making those arguments for the government when they appear
before his court (and if you think that appellate judges don't
make arguments, you did not hear Supreme Court Chief Justice
Rehnquist make Bush's arguments for his attorney, not Solicitor
General Ted Olson. And you have not read the rulings of the Fourth
Circuit when it denied an American citizen, Yasir Hamdi, the
right to see a lawyer. He is locked up in some military brig.
He has not been charged with a crime and has been in custody
for close to a year. The opinion was a political treatise, not
a legal argument. And the treatise-opinion supported the government's
argument that courts step back and not conduct meaningful judicial
review or, heaven forbid, overrule the government in a time of
"war." And that treatise said that the "war"
on terror will only be over when the President says it is over,
and that the "front" of the war may change from time
to time. When the "front" changes, then the government
may tighten up surveillance and arrests on that "battleground,"
which could be Alexandria, Virginia or any city in the country.
This same court will rule on Moussaoui's
right to have access to a witness who, by all counts, may help
his case and hurt the government. If the 4th Circuit rules that
the witness may not be produced, federal law, procedure, and
the Constitution will have been violated to support the Bush-Ashcroft
agenda. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved Michael Chertoff
with hardly an argument (though they did conduct an "investigation"
into charges that he engaged in some misconduct while at DOJ,
which turned up nothing, or so we are told).
Keep your eye on Michael Chertoff. As
bad for the law and Constitution as many of Bush's judicial appointees
are, Chertoff has been the architect of prosecutions in the "war
on terror." And he may have big changes in mind for you,
me, the courts, and the Constitution.
Elaine Cassel
practices law in Virginia and the District of Columbia, teaches
law and psychology, and writes Civil
Liberties Watch under the auspices of The City Pages.
She can be reached at: ecassel1@cox.net
Weekend
Edition Features
Alexander
Cockburn
The Terrible Truth
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Going Critical: Bush's War on Endangered Species
Joanne
Mariner
Ashcrofts Sides with Torturers
Steven
Sherman
A Different Theory of Everything
Ron Jacobs
Sports, Politics and the 60s
M.
Shahid Alam
Pauperizing the Periphery
Amelia
Peltz
If This is the Road, I'd Rather be Lost
Shelton
Hull
Another Powell, Another Capitulation
Binoy Kampmark
Nuclear Deterrence and North Korea
Ben
Tripp
A Fish Story
Sen. Robert
Byrd
Where is the Outrage?
Robin
Philpot
Congo Distortions
Julie Hilden
Murder and the Matrix
Laura
Flanders
An Interview with Isabel Allende
David Lindorff
The Last Byline
Adam
Engel
Talk Dirty Scary Monsters
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Reiss, Guthrie, Albert and Hamod
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