Show Trials

I really, really like Rick Santorum—and he wrote a great article on September 10th called The Elephant in the Room: Who will collect the dots?

I will not comment in depth on the main point of his article, which was that the Intelligence Agencies are being transformed into their pre-9/11 forms again. We must honestly deal with the question of whether or not we are a target to evil in the world, and whether or not terrorism is something that is still a threat to our nation. I would hope the answer is "no," but I know with certainty that the answer to both questions is a frighteningly resounding "yes." It is not of light consequence that these realities exist and we must not bury our heads in the sand and pretend that they do not.

The substance of the article discusses the dire situation facing the Intelligence Community because of an activist overly politicized Justice Department. Some of those people are out to score political points, but worse yet they are out for blood.

The methods that are being used to exact political revenge are what I would like to bring up. I find it utterly sickening that serial killers, rapists, and child predators walk the streets of this country because of "prosecutorial misconduct," and equally reprehensible are the efforts to empower our terrorist enemies by bestowing upon them due process rights. To demonstrate how backward and utterly disgusting the system is becoming, we have good honest men and women, many of whom are the real heroes in this country, who are being dragged through the mud with the intention of finding misconduct in their own defense with which they may then be charged and convicted.

So, lets get this straight: the bad guys go free because the lawyers mess up...and the good guys go to jail because the lawyers are successful in crossing them in their words...is that about right?

This is what Senator Santorum says in his piece:

"Last month, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder countermanded the decision of his Justice Department's career prosecutors and decided to investigate CIA agents who had interrogated unlawful enemy combatants. Holder's special prosecutor will undoubtedly prosecute and secure convictions. Like most political prosecutions, however, the charges will grow out of the agents' conduct during the special prosecutor's investigation, not the agents' conduct in questioning the terrorists. (See the Scooter Libby prosecution.)"

This is outright shameful, and it is going to get people killed, not to mention many wonderful people will have their names and their lives ruined in the process. These actions are undermining the security of our nation, which is the foremost role of the federal government under the powers granted to it by the people in the Constitution. The use of these dirty legal games that only seek to injure and harm are just like the "show trials" that went on for decades in Stalinist Russia.

Stalinist Show Trials

Stalin and his henchmen found that this was a wonderfully useful trick to get rid of potential political opponents.

• Drag them in front of a court


• Get them to say something they can be accused for


• Prosecute them accordingly and then lock them up in a Gulag

This was very effective, but extremely diabolical. And the practice is totally antithetical to liberty and should never be used in the United States of America. Unfortunately, we see it all the time, Congressional Hearings, Special Prosecutors, and so forth; all done by conspiring men and women, all done with the same malicious intent, and all happening right in our own front yard in broad daylight.

The only point left to ponder is the ethics of stealing a page out of your opponents playbook and getting down in the mud; fighting fire with fire, so to speak. I would say only as a last resort because the ends do not justify the means, in spite of what the current Congress and Administration believe. Sometimes it behooves a man to taste his own medicine, but I would hope that in this great nation we could do away with such things without having to all lower ourselves to such disrespectful ways.