Oh, the blogosphere has exploded with the sentencing of Lynne Stewart, cuddly grandma, nice lady, radical lawyer.
What can I add?
A Clinton-appointed judge gave her a slap on the wrist. You think she doesn't deserve more? Michelle Malkin lists her offenses.
Captain's Quarters makes the very valid point that the crimes of Ms. Stewart show why the war on terror can not be dealt with through the legal system:
This woman sent messages to Rahman's followers in Egypt that instructed them to begin terrorist activity. She knew exactly what she did -- after all, she had defended Rahman and had seen the evidence against him -- and turned her back on her country and her humanity in order to suck up to a man who plotted the murder of tens of thousands of Americans. Stewart's actions could easily have led to the deaths of many innocent civilians . . .
However, Judge Koeltl showed why the law-enforcement model will never defeat terrorism. Here we have an important part of a communication chain meant to instigate murder on a global scale, and the judge sentences her to 1/15th of the possible sentence . . .
Koeltl sent a message today that certain people can commit or enable acts of terror, as long as they have the correct political background.
Exactly!
Not too long ago I read Destructive Generation by Peter Collier and David Horowitz. If you want to know how people like Lynne Stewart think, you have to read this book. The first chapter is especially germane as it deals with radical '60's lawyer Fay Stender.
What you have to realize is, these people actually believe their clients are victims of government conspiracies against them. They are being tried for their politics (or race), not their crimes. So anything they can do to free them or even help them is for the greater good. Anything. The end justifies the means.
Meanwhile, on the left, some guy who must want to live under the Taliban wrote: "And for John Ashcroft and 'Torture Boy' Gonzalez and the rest of these autocratic assclowns, I hope they lose every important case in the courts from here until the fall of the House of Bush."
Again, this is why we can't do this through the courts.
Now Ms. Stewart is a U.S. citizen entitled to the protections of the Constitution, including trial by jury and luck-of-the-draw getting a liberal judge to sentence her.
The detainees at Gitmo are not U.S. citizens and not entitled to protection of our Constitution. They are not even legal combatants entitled to protection of the Geneva Convention. In former wars they could have been executed on sight.
Thanks, Zombie, for linking to my post on this courageous civil rights attorney. You managed to find one of the more outrageous things I've said over the last year, so I thought I would congratulate you for singling that out as indicative of us on the left. Unlike some right wing jarheads, you had the guts to link directly to my site and let your readers make up their own minds. Thanks a lot!
Posted by: Tahoma Activist | November 19, 2006 at 05:00 PM