From The Boston Globe
By James Carroll

“Trust us. You’re guilty. We’re going to execute you, but we can’t tell you why.” That is how Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, characterized the Bush administration’s recent proposal for a draconian new trial system to deal with accused terrorists. The plan includes a reinterpretation of prisoner protections guaranteed by the Geneva Conventions. Graham was joined in opposition last week by other Republicans, including Colin Powell. Remarkably , lawyers in the Pentagon also raised objections. But the White House argument is straightforward: terrorists are such a mortal threat that established due process must be suspended. In particular, the classified secrets of anti terrorist operations must be so closely held that the most basic pillar of jurisprudence — the accused’s right to know and respond to evidence — must be discarded. The legislation was drafted by Franz Kafka.

The Congress will decide how to respond to administration proposals, and courts will review whatever system is enacted. All of this unfolds in the context, first, of the Supreme Court’s decision in June that Bush-sponsored terrorist tribunals, centered in Guantanamo, violate international law and the Constitution, and, second, of the administration’s admission two weeks ago that the CIA has been running a secret and extrajudicial prison system abroad, without any pretense of legal procedure. Nothing inhibits interrogation methods from approaching torture. Not exactly grounds for trust.

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