re: #341 Petero1818

That is a valid point and you are correct, worthy of honest engagement. the fact that it may have been done incorrectly once, does not mean it can’t be done correctly the next time. I am not saying it is easy, but living up to the values that you have set for yourself as a nation is not always easy.

Don’t you think they tried to do it “correctly” in the trial of the ‘93 bombers? We’ve been on the lookout for terrorists for decades, you know, and have had practice in securing valuable intelligence for decades before that, during the Cold War. But when some fancy-pants lawyer—who in a civilian court is bound by law and custom to do whatever it legally takes to acquit his client—discloses some vital piece of intelligence, it has consequences. One of the consequences should be to quit repeating the errors that led to so much American bloodshed.

Which brings me to a second point, which is that I do not view these values to be absolute. The fact is that if you commit a crime in Iran, or in China, you need to know what your trial is going to look like. Its your own damn fault. you should not have committed that crime there if you wanted a real trial with a real adversarial system. That is why I do not fault Israel for the way they treat “ticking time bombs” within their system. I may wish for something else, but the reality is it is their system. They live with shit we cant even imagine.

Yes, Third World countries’ judicial systems are Teh SuXXoR, no news there. And, having gone through a patdown at a checkpoint from Jordan into Israel, I know how seriously they take their security. It’s interesting and everything, but I don’t see how it has bearing on how we should handle our terrorism issues.