Losing the War on Terrorism

A Georgetown university law professor, David Cole, pens an editorial in Friday's Washington Post and the message is clear. In his piece, 'How Not to Fight Terrorism', Cole recalls the history of the Moussaoui case, which recently resulted in a life sentence, in order to show how the US government wasted years and resources slogging together evidence they hoped would convince a jury to give Moussaoui the death penalty.

Four years ago Moussaoui was on the verge of pleading guilty to offenses that would have resulted in a life sentence. But he was unwilling to accept the government's insistence that he admit to being the 20th hijacker of Sept. 11, 2001 -- an allegation the government has long since dropped.

Cole goes on with a scathing indictment of the Bush administration's attempts to bring terrorists to justice since 9/11 - especially two who were, allegedly, actually responsible for the attacks.

Meanwhile, at a secret CIA "black site" prison, the United States is holding the alleged mastermind of Sept. 11, Khalid Sheik Mohammed. And at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, it has Mohamed al-Qahtani, who the government now claims is the real would-be 20th hijacker. But the administration can't try either of these men, because any such proceeding would turn into a trial of the United States' own tactics in the war on terrorism. The CIA has reportedly water-boarded Khalid Sheik Mohammed -- a practice in which the suspect is made to fear that he is drowning in order to encourage him to talk. And Army logs report that interrogators threatened Qahtani with dogs, made him strip naked and wear women's underwear, put him on a leash and made him bark like a dog, injected him with intravenous fluids and barred him from the bathroom so that he urinated on himself. With these shortsighted and inhumane tactics, the administration essentially immunized the real culprits, so it was left seeking the execution of a man who was not involved in Sept. 11.

As if anyone needed yet another convincing reason to oppose torture. (Does this make you feel any safer, Michael Ignatieff?)

Cole also reminds readers that:

the government admitted to detaining 5,000 foreign nationals in the first two years after Sept. 11. Yet to this day not one of them stands convicted of a terrorist offense. Similarly, the administration launched a nationwide ethnic profiling campaign, calling in 8,000 young men for FBI interviews and 80,000 more for registration, fingerprinting and photographing by immigration authorities, simply because they came from Arab and Muslim countries. Not one of those 88,000 has been convicted of terrorism.

Early on, the administration labeled the Guantanamo detainees "the worst of the worst." Yet we now know that more than 250 have been released, that they included boys as young as 13 and that of those who remain, only 8 percent are even accused of being fighters for al-Qaeda. The majority are not accused of engaging in any hostile acts against the United States.

Day after day and month after month, Bush and his cronies are out there stumping about how the WoT is being won. Where, exactly? Ah...but they'll tell you that they can't really tell you what's going on because that's 'classified'. Since when has that stopped this administration from leaking information propaganda that is supposed to be helpful in boosting its tough guy image?

When the DoD gave a briefing on Thursday, releasing a video of Zarqawi's bloopers, they successfully diverted attention away from the fact that 2 more US soldiers were killed by bombs while they sat laughing about Zarqawi's troubles using a US made machine gun and wearing New Balance™ running shoes. Maybe they should be a bit more concerned about the fact that Zarqawi can simply behead his enemies with a machete. Who needs a gun for that?

And then there's this:

And in the kind of incident that fuels resentment toward the Iraqi government and its American allies, Iraqi doctors and neighbors in the Sunni city of Ramadi accused U.S. troops of killing children in a missile strike on Thursday but the military said no civilians, only eight insurgents, were killed.

Local television footage showed the body of a boy lying in the rubble of a house. Hospital and police officials gave death tolls ranging from five to 13, with up to another 15 wounded.

We all know that the US military never admits to killing children. It just doesn't fit with their 'liberator' status.

No, the US is not winning the war on terrorism or the war in Iraq and it has basically given up in Afghanistan, handing over command of NATO troops to British officials and pledging to remove some 16,000 US soldiers in August - in preparation for an Iran strike? October surprise, anyone?

One is left to wonder who in the United States actually believes Bush's rhetoric about securing the country anymore. He and his Republican-led congress have failed miserably at every turn and, almost five years after 9/11, can anyone honestly say they feel any safer?