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Pastimes : THE SLIGHTLY MODERATED BOXING RING -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (17724)	7/18/2002 9:59:32 AM
From: Bill	Respond to of 21057

Well, at least it's thinking. Beats what some people around here are doing.

To: Lane3 who wrote (17724)	7/18/2002 10:23:42 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 21057

Here's a little something for the Ashcroft "fans" in the crowd. Spotlight John By Richard Cohen Thursday, July 18, 2002; Page A29 I couldn't care less that John Walker Lindh, agreeing to a plea bargain, is going to get 20 years in jail for fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan. He's just a screwed-up young man, that's for sure, but the jails are full of such types and, mostly, I feel no sympathy for them. I have only one regret in this case. Lindh's attorneys should have bargained for John Ashcroft's resignation as attorney general. Such a demand would have been unprecedented, but Lindh and his lawyers held some pretty good cards. They might have insisted on a jury trial, at which it would have become clear that Lindh was not a monster terrorist, connected in some vague way with the death of CIA officer Johnny "Mike" Spann, but just a jerk who happened to be in the neighborhood when Spann was killed. He had nothing to do with Spann's death. A trial also might have revealed that Lindh was mistreated by Americans after his capture. He was turned over to U.S. troops Dec. 1. He had been shot in the thigh. On Dec. 7, Lindh was transferred to a Marine base outside Kandahar, where he was questioned by the FBI, and on Dec. 14, he was moved to the Peleliu, a U.S. ship in the Arabian Sea. It was only there, two weeks after his capture, that the bullet was removed. In all likelihood, Lindh would have lost a jury trial and been sentenced to life in prison. He was, after all, an armed enemy soldier. But much of the rest of what Ashcroft said about him -- not to mention the fact that Spotlight John chose to make almost every significant announcement about the case himself -- amounted to an exaggeration. Just about the only time Ashcroft chose to keep his mouth shut was when the plea bargain was announced. For once, the AG was not in makeup. For Ashcroft, this is beginning to look like a pattern. First comes the hype and then comes the disappearing act. It was Ashcroft who announced from Moscow that someone named Jose Padilla had been arrested on the suspicion that he was involved in a plot to explode a dirty bomb. The attorney general said the United States had "disrupted an unfolding terrorist plot" that could have caused "mass death and injury." But Padilla had been detained a month earlier. He clearly was up to no good, but his research into making a dirty bomb consisted of surfing the Internet. If he committed a crime, it has not so far been alleged, and yet Ashcroft felt compelled -- no doubt for national security reasons -- to make the announcement all the way from Russia. National security was probably what also prompted him to fly to Pittsburgh once to announce a local drug bust. Ashcroft is a hype artist who, when it suits him, plays fast and loose with the truth. It's impossible to scan his schedule of public appearances and not wonder whether he is angling to return to the Senate from where he was ousted by Mel Carnahan, who died shortly before the election and whose wife, Jean, was named his successor. Just for the record, Ashcroft handled what had to be a tough loss with grace. As is often the case with conservatives who decry big government and Washington interference, Ashcroft makes an exception for himself. Not only does he drop in like Batman whenever his PR people tell him evil is lurking, but he has reached down from his perch at the Justice Department to overrule local prosecutors in death penalty cases. The Supreme Court and various state governors may be having qualms about capital punishment, but not the AG. Twelve times he has ordered sappy U.S. attorneys to seek the max even though they, the vaunted local officials most familiar with the cases, decided otherwise. But it is in the area of what might be called homeland security that Ashcroft does the most damage. His exaggerations and willingness to lend the immense prestige of the Justice Department to cases that eventually turn out to be a piffle make us all question the terrorist warnings that occasionally come our way. He has the cynical politician's feel for today's sound bite. Tomorrow's truth is someone else's department. The truth of the Lindh case came out in court. Instead of multiple life sentences for a monster, the government got 20 years for a nobody. In a statement, Ashcroft called it an "important victory in America's war on terrorism." But a glance around the courtroom could have told you that this was just more hype. The attorney general was not there. © 2002 The Washington Post Company