On Dec. 12 the chairman and another member of the Jewish Defense League were arrested by the FBI on suspicion of plotting to blow up a Los Angeles-area mosque and the office of an Arab-American congressman.
U.S. Attorney John Gordon said JDL chairman Irv Rubin, 56, and Earl Krugel, 59, were arrested after the last component of the bomb — explosive powder — was delivered to Krugel’s home. Other bomb components and weapons were allegedly seized at the home.
The accused are evidently U.S. citizens. So now, thank God, they will have all the protections of a fair trial under the Constitution:
The presumption they are innocent (as indeed they claim to be).
*Counsel of their own choice, with whom they’ll be able to talk in private (without the U.S. government listening) as they plan their defense.
*Protection against hearsay evidence, or evidence extracted by police beatings.
*A jury, carefully chosen to be free of bias, that will need to be unanimously convinced they are guilty beyond reasonable doubt, in order to convict.
*A judge who is independent of the attorney general, the president and the FBI.
Not only will they be protected, but so will the public — from the danger of convicting the wrong person and leaving some terrorists still striding the streets or sneaking in the alleys.
But now let’s recall that there are between 60 and 100 Israelis who are this very moment sitting in indefinite detention, held for God only knows what, maybe a violation of immigration law or maybe not, incommunicado, so that families don’t know where they are and lawyers can’t reach them.
Imagine that the FBI or the president decided one of them, or 10 of them, had been or might have been in cahoots with these alleged JDL terrorists.
Suddenly not a single one of the normal safeguards of constitutional justice would apply. Suddenly, these foreigners — these Israelis — could rot indefinitely in detention. If they were permitted a lawyer, their conversations could be bugged. If the president wished, they could be tried by a drumhead military “court” made up of officers who were under orders to obey the commander-in-chief and were beholden to the president for their futures. Any evidence the “judges” thought “reasonable” could be used against them. And two-thirds of the judges present could convict them and even order them executed.
Who cares? Terrorists deserve whatever they get.
But what if the president were wrong, and they weren’t terrorists in the first place? Not only would their lives be unjustly ruined — or ended — but the real terrorists might still be walking around. Injustice to the individuals, injustice to the public.
Does it seem a little horrifying if the suspects are Jews instead of Arabs?
Or does it seem horrifying that this could happen to anyone under the flag of the United States?
What to do about it?
For a bare start, we might ask our own Jewish organizations what they are doing to uphold the ancient Torah teaching, “Tzedek tzedek tirdof. Justice, justice shall you pursue.” Why is “justice” named twice? To teach, said our ancient rabbis, that we seek a just result — by pursuing just means. Justice is not achieved through injustice.
And then we ourselves could check in with the American Civil Liberties Union about the notion of bugging attorney-client conversations.
The ACLU writes:
“Without observing the legally mandated period of public review and comment, Attorney General [John] Ashcroft has implemented a new eavesdropping regulation that gives the government, without judicial oversight or meaningful standards, the unprecedented power to listen in on conversations between prison inmates and their attorneys.
“The new regulation renders the age-old tradition of attorney-client privilege worthless and essentially guts the right to counsel guaranteed by the Constitution. Furthermore, the new regulation is unnecessary since the Department of Justice already has the legal authority to record attorney-client conversations by going before a judge and obtaining a warrant.
“Take Action! The Bureau of Prisons is compiling public comments through Dec. 31 and a huge public outcry could force Ashcroft to rescind the regulation. Now is the last time to speak out! You can read more and send an e-mail to the Bureau of Prisons from our action alert at http://www.aclu.org/action/attorney107.html”
Just a small step, that letter — but something.
Remember: The guy being jailed with no rights might be a Jew instead of an Arab. Still worse — she or he might be a human being.