When Will the Foley Square Protests Begin?

American Taliban?

As you might recall, people literally took to the streets last year when the Justice Department decided that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would receive a civilian trial in New York City. Jane Mayer wrote a typically authoritative account of the controversy. In her story, Mayer recounted that people opposed to granting Mohammed the sort of trial which defines the American legal system believed that Mohammed instead should have been subjected to a military tribunal and the circumscribed rights it affords enemy combatants. At the Foley Square protest convened by these outraged political dissidents, the scene turned a little ugly:

Greg Manning, whose wife, Laura, was severely burned in the World Trade Center attacks, stood before the crowd and said, “Thousands are already dead because of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s choices. We do not want to see . . . hundreds of thousands dead because of the Attorney General’s choices.”

Andrew McCarthy, the former Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney who led the prosecution of the 1993 World Trade Center attacks, also gave a speech, declaring that Holder didn’t “understand what rule of law has always been in wartime.” He said, “It’s military commissions. It’s not to wrap our enemies in our Bill of Rights.”

“Traitor!” someone shouted.

Edith Lutnick, who works for the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund, told the crowd, “My brother, Gary, lost his life that day.” The 9/11 victims, she said, “were murdered by the terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and we do not want him and his fellow-terrorists tried in that building. . . . We need to tell Eric Holder that we will be victims no more.”

“Lynch Holder!” an onlooker cried.

Over the last few days, we've again been reminded that terrorism comes in all forms. These Hutaree people from Michigan were planning to kill a police officer and then incite greater conflict by detonating improvised explosive devices at his memorial. Their goal was to encourage anti-government violence, tearing at the seams of U.S. society. So I am left to wonder how these Hutaree people are any different than terrorists of foreign origin. They don't seem to be.

Similarly, I can't help but wonder when the next Foley Square protest--or perhaps one at the Renaissance Center in Detroit--will be convened. After all, shouldn't the same people who grandstanded about Sheikh Mohammed be just as upset about similarly situated alleged criminals receiving American due process? Or were the Foley Square folks being disingenuous, opportunistic, and intellectually dishonest?

That couldn't be the case, could it?