Why Is It Only “The Rule of Law” When We Lose?

State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley used Twitter to defend yesterday’s verdict in the Ghailani case. A disaster for the Obama administration? Not at all! A triumph for “the rule of law.”

A jury of 12 Americans convicted Ahmed Ghailani of a terrorist conspiracy. Miscarriage of justice? No, it’s called the rule of law.
The Ghailani case shows America practices what it preaches, protecting our national security through a transparent legal system.

Protecting our national security is primarily the job of our armed forces, not our “transparent legal system.” Indeed, it is the very transparency of the civilian criminal court system–e.g., the defendant’s ability to find out how the evidence against him was gathered–that makes it so unsuitable for dealing with captured terrorists.

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