Hanging in the Balance
Lawfare and Obama's Transnationalist
By Frank Gaffney
What is wrong with this picture? We learned this weekend that a Spanish judge, Baltasar Garzon, is preparing to prosecute six Americans who worked as senior legal and policy advisors to President George W. Bush - including Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith. The alleged crime? The opinions they provided Mr. Bush supported the use of torture against enemy combatants.
Most Americans would find this assertion of what has come to be called "transnational law" to be troubling on several grounds. Its application is an affront to due process and the rule of law in this country. It would criminalize internal U.S. policy-making deliberations, with profound implications for U.S. sovereignty. If allowed to run its course, this prosecution would have a profoundly chilling effect on the willingness of subordinates to provide a president with advice, or perhaps even to serve in government.
One would hope that President Obama would recognize that this use of legal mechanisms as a form of warfare against the United States - increasingly known as "lawfare" - holds serious dangers not just for the country and those who ran it for the past eight years, but for his administration, as well. That would appear not to be the case, however, in light of his choice of Harold Koh to be the State Department's top lawyer.
Read More...
Source: Townhall.com
Note: Scarier still is the notion that our laws would no longer be made or interpreted in the context of our Constitution, but in the context of the world stage. Such a transition would also threaten our ability to enter (or not enter) into treaties, to wage war, etc., as a sovereign nation.
By Frank Gaffney
What is wrong with this picture? We learned this weekend that a Spanish judge, Baltasar Garzon, is preparing to prosecute six Americans who worked as senior legal and policy advisors to President George W. Bush - including Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith. The alleged crime? The opinions they provided Mr. Bush supported the use of torture against enemy combatants.
Most Americans would find this assertion of what has come to be called "transnational law" to be troubling on several grounds. Its application is an affront to due process and the rule of law in this country. It would criminalize internal U.S. policy-making deliberations, with profound implications for U.S. sovereignty. If allowed to run its course, this prosecution would have a profoundly chilling effect on the willingness of subordinates to provide a president with advice, or perhaps even to serve in government.
One would hope that President Obama would recognize that this use of legal mechanisms as a form of warfare against the United States - increasingly known as "lawfare" - holds serious dangers not just for the country and those who ran it for the past eight years, but for his administration, as well. That would appear not to be the case, however, in light of his choice of Harold Koh to be the State Department's top lawyer.
Read More...
Source: Townhall.com
Note: Scarier still is the notion that our laws would no longer be made or interpreted in the context of our Constitution, but in the context of the world stage. Such a transition would also threaten our ability to enter (or not enter) into treaties, to wage war, etc., as a sovereign nation.
posted by Kathy at 3/31/2009 06:33:00 PM
1 Comments:
It certainly is a very disturbing trend. The good news is that America is the only remaining superpower and if we want to be sovereign than the UN and ICC can't do anything about it. Hopefully the next president takes a tactful path with regard to this kind of issue.
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