Pubdate: Mon, 04 Feb 2002
Source: Washington Times (DC)
Copyright: 2002 News World Communications, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.washtimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/492
Author: Paul Craig Roberts
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption)

CAUTION WITH THE CHARGES

The war against terrorism has made it permissible to express 
patriotic feelings. Patriots are reveling in the first opportunity 
since World War II to hold America's enemies accountable without 
being denounced by the political left wing.

It is important to hold our enemies accountable, but we all have a 
stake in avoiding trumped-up charges. Emotional actions directed at 
scapegoats can set dangerous precedents that harm liberty.

Taliban John, the Californian captured fighting for the Taliban in 
Afghanistan, is an unsympathetic figure. It is not for his sake that 
we must make certain that trumped-up charges are not a factor in his 
trial.

Among other offenses, Taliban John is charged with "conspiracy to 
kill Americans." This charge gives one pause

Taliban John, a Muslim convert, had signed on with one side in an 
Afghan civil war prior to the involvement of the U.S. on the other 
side. He had no way of knowing that a Taliban ally, Osama bin Laden, 
would be involved in a horrendous event that would bring the U.S. 
into the Afghan civil war.

Taliban John is unlikely to have fired on American troops. The 
Taliban Afghan troops faced Northern Alliance Afghan troops. After 
September 11, the U.S. supplied the air power that turned the tide of 
the civil war. Once the U.S. was involved, Taliban John could not 
have confessed a change of heart to the Taliban and survived.

Taliban John was in the basement of a prison when an uprising broke 
out on upper floors that happened to take the life of an American CIA 
official. Is there evidence that Taliban John conspired in the action 
and that the uprising was a conspiracy to kill Americans?

We mustn't confuse the Taliban with al Qaeda. The Taliban are 
religious warriors drawn from various tribes. They were focused on 
Afghanistan where they were engaged in "nation-building" by 
attempting to use the authority of Islam to impose a central 
government on multi- ethnic tribal politics.

Al Qaeda is a terrorist organization focused on the capitalist West.

Bin Laden's help in driving out the Soviets brought him Afghan 
gratitude that enabled him to pursue purposes of his own. As bin 
Laden was armed with his own troops, the U.S. demand that the Taliban 
turn him over was probably unrealistic.

The trouble with trumped-up charges is that they become a habit. The 
Justice Department is already too inclined in that direction. It was 
the Justice Department that accused Exxon of running the Valdez oil 
tanker aground for the purposes of "dumping refuse without a permit" 
and "killing migratory birds without a license."

Who in their right mind would believe that $150 million worth of 
crude oil was "refuse" and that a company wrecked one of its ships in 
order to kill birds?

Unfortunately, trumped-up charges are routine in our criminal justice 
system. The latest is in Dallas where major drug charges against 39 
separate individuals have been thrown out. The "evidence" against 
them turned out to be ground-up wallboard, packaged to look like 
cocaine, that had been planted in their cars or on their property.

The narcotics agents claimed field tests showed the substance was 
cocaine. Certified lab tests were not required unless the accused 
went to trial. Most did not, being coerced instead into plea bargains 
and sent to prison on the bogus evidence.

The Dallas police were working with an informant, who was paid 
$200,000, apparently to plant the bogus cocaine on innocent people.

Last year's scandal was frame-ups by the Los Angeles police. Before 
that, the FBI crime lab, the New York State Police, and the 
Wenatchee, Wash., frame-ups of 26 people on fabricated child sex 
abuse charges. This list of trumped-up charges is long and growing.

At some point "law and order" conservatives must come to terms with 
the fact that it is easier for police and prosecutors to frame the 
innocent than to convict the guilty on the evidence.

Taliban John should be accused and punished. Trumped-up charges are 
not necessary to hold him accountable. It would be a grave mistake 
for Americans to tolerate trumped-up charges simply because they are 
outraged by the defendant.
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