Frank Gaffney and Andrew McCarthy are two of the loudest and dumbest voices on the right. They have literally never seen an authoritarian anti-Islamic policy they didn’t endorse. Gaffney has argued that we should end Muslim immigration and not allow any mosques to be built. Now they’re teaming up to say dumb things about a civilian trial for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev:
In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, the investigation into its perpetrators has been marred by a series of bizarre and even alarming actions by President Obama and his administration. Unfortunately, these increasingly suggest a pattern that is at odds with our national and homeland security. The question must be occurring to many Americans: Whose side is he on?
Consider just a few of the recent examples suggesting the ominous answer is “not ours”:
Team Obama decided precipitously to charge the surviving alleged bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, in civilian court. This action resulted in his being read Miranda rights and obtaining a lawyer, prompting him to refuse to answer more questions from investigators. Former federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy observed, “Obama was determined to end the public debate over whether the jihadist is a wartime enemy combatant or a mere criminal defendant.”
Mr. McCarthy theorizes on what is going on here: “[We] are being softened up. Steered by its Gitmo bar veterans and lawyer left compass, the Obama administration is executing a massive national-security fraud: the farce that the jihad against America can be judicialized, that civilian-court processes are a better answer to enemy warfare than are combat protocols.”
For fuck’s sake, McCarthy is a former federal prosecutor. There is no debate over whether Tsarnaev could be charged in any venue other than a civilian court. He can’t. Period. The courts already ruled on this. He’s an American citizen who committed a crime on American soil. That is the end of the argument for any sane person.