Restoring Our Weakened National Soul

It's a new era in Washington, one in which accountability matters and the rule of law will be enforced. It looks like the Marines who allegedly committed the massacre in Haditha will be brought to justice.

The U.S. military is expected to charge at least five U.S. Marines in the killing of 24 civilians in Haditha, Iraq, and the charges could include murder, defense officials said Wednesday.

It was not known when the charges would come down but a Marine Corps official said it would not happen Wednesday.

A Marine Corps general will brief members of the House Armed Services Committee behind closed doors Wednesday morning about the military's months-long investigation of the case.

That we punish our troops when they step outside the boundaries of acceptable rules is what separates our military and our nation. Unfortunately, this burden typically falls on lower-level officials and never those at the top who authorize bad policy. Except now, at least, some are getting their say in court.

As Donald Rumsfeld prepares to leave his job as secretary of Defense, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is seeking to hold him responsible for what it says was widespread torture carried out at his direction.

Lawyers representing Mr. Rumsfeld and three US Army commanders are set to appear in federal court here Friday in response to a lawsuit charging that the Defense secretary authorized torture and other illegal abuse of military detainees in Afghanistan and Iraq - including at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison.

The case is important because it represents an attempt to hold US officials accountable for alleged illegal abuse of Iraqi and Afghan civilians who were never detained as enemy combatants or charged with any crime. But some legal analysts say the suit may be aimed more at shaping public opinion than winning in court because such cases are difficult to pursue.

Interestingly enough, this comes at the same time that the Justice Department used an anti-torture statute for the first time to indict the son of the former President of Liberia for torturing a political prisoner. Either the defendant in that case will plead that he was only doing nothing more than the US has done, or critics of the US torture policy will accuse the Justice Department of picking and choosing torture cases. Either way, it's important for decent Americans to stand up for their principles, and to fight against such immoral actions as torture.

Other decent Americans are standing up, too late I feel, for American principles like restoring the 900 year-old practice of habeas corpus:

President Bush's victory in getting the rules he wanted to try suspected terrorists could be diminished.

The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee signaled this week that he'll join prominent Democrats in seeking to restore legal rights to hundreds of suspected terrorists confined at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and elsewhere.

While the measure to restore the right of habeas corpus has almost no chance of passing before Congress adjourns later this week, the message is clear: When Democrats take over in early January, the issue could resurface.

The Military Commissions Act of 2006, which Bush signed into law in October, prevents detainees who aren't U.S. citizens from challenging their detentions in civilian courts. But Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who voted for the legislation despite his opposition to stripping such rights from detainees, on Tuesday reintroduced legislation to restore those rights. A similar measure sponsored by Specter failed by three votes in October.

This seems to me and to Glenn Greenwald as too little, too late. Now it must overcome both a filibuster from the Republican side, needing 60 votes, and the veto pen from the President, needing 67 votes. The time to protect and defend habeas corpus has passed. Specter is trying to save what's left of his reputation with this maneuver. Still, it's important to resubmit this every year until we can finally get it through. It's too important that America regain its footing as a moral leader on the world stage.