How Not to Fight Terrorism

The high-profile trial of Zacarias Moussaoui has concluded, and the result, after four years, is a life sentence – which Moussaoui was prepared to accept when the proceedings began. In the intervening years, the US government sought to prove that Moussaoui was the 20th hijacker set to participate in the 9/11 attacks and blocked his access, with questionable legality, to witnesses and other evidence that suggested otherwise. At the same time, the government imprisoned 9/11 suspects Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Mohammed al-Qahtani. Their treatment at the hands of authorities, one in a secret CIA prison and the other at Guantanamo Bay, has all but invalidated the government’s basis for prosecuting them. According to law professor David Cole, such stories suggest that the US government’s overreaching tactics in the war on terror do not contribute to safety. Cole argues that the government places disproportionate emphasis on symbolic victories. Of tens of thousands Arab and Muslim men detained, fingerprinted or otherwise investigated by the government since 9/11, none have been convicted of terrorist acts, and few actually stand accused of fighting for al-Qaeda. Meanwhile, real security measures go ignored. – YaleGlobal