The law that made it possible to prosecute civilians in military courts could be one step closer to Supreme Court review, after appellate courts have wrestled with the case of the Iraqi-born civilian contractor Alaa “Alex” Ali, who was tried and imprisoned by the U.S. Army.
“It’s a significant case, in that it’s the first time a civilian has been tried in a regular court-martial since the Vietnam War,” said lawyer Michael J. Navarre. The 2006 amendment that legalized civilian court-martials was authored by Sen. Lindsey Graham, (R-SC).
Born in Baghdad, Ali moved to Canada in 1992 and in 2007, he joined L-3 Communications, a U.S. defense contractor, to serve as an interpreter to U.S. troops. After a fight with another interpreter in 2008, Ali pleaded guilty obstructing justice and lying to investigators, and put in jail for 115 days. Courts are now deciding whether the military had a right to try Ali as a civilian.
Defenders of the law say that Ali was effectively a soldier. “He was deeply embedded with the armed forces in an area of actual fighting,” Army Capt. John D. Riesenberg declared in a court brief. “He wore the same uniform, ate the same food, slept in the same tents and faced the same constant dangers from the enemy.”
Broadening the military’s power to conduct trials on civilians and impede the traditional form of justice they’re afforded is not new for Sen. Graham. Indeed, he was one of the foremost supporters of the amendment in the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act which declares all terror suspects enemy combatants to be tried in military courts, even U.S. citizens.
A two-tiered justice system seems to have been embedded in the American system since the start of the war on terror, but some fear this case may not make it to the Supreme Court. Navarre cautioned that “practically speaking” the military prosecution of civilians may still be too infrequent to compel Supreme Court action.
Oh yes! Statistics weigh heavier than justice at any time for a modern mind!
Ali did not sign a military contract with the government, nor did he take the Oath of Service, nor did his paychecks come from the United States government. He was a civilian contractor and, as such, he is not subject to the UCMJ and therefore cannot be tried in a court martial. He can be tried as a civilian, but not as a member of the US Armed Forces.
He was a mercenary, so shooting him out of hand would have been justice.
And yet, following your logic, both Bush and Obama are responsible for signing the checks so they should be shot as well, eh?
Mercenaries are seldom given protections of national troops. Do you deny this man was anything other than a merc?
An interpreter becomes a mercenary deserving of death on your say so? Sheesh! You'd make the Cheka proud.
Married to the U.S. Army
“He… ate the same food, slept in the same tents and faced the same constant dangers…”
Same exact logic as marriage by common law, which is now being enforced in 11 states.
I agree.
I eat the same food as doctors, I work in the same hospital where they work, I have to be on guard from the same dangers from infection and disease as doctors….. but does that make me the same as a doctor?
I think not.
But hey, I thought about playing a doctor on tv- does that count?
No, but it does make you an employee of the hospital and subject to their rules and regulations.
"The 2006 amendment that legalized civilian court-martials was authored by Sen. Lindsey Graham, (R-SC)."
Well, here we have it, a military coup d'etat from within Congress, as Graham is a reserve officer – JAG, no less. This man so clearly represents the danger of military involvement in government that it is high time that a bill be introduced in Congress, absolutely forbidding any sitting Senator or Representative from holding a commission of any kind in the armed forces, or likewise being enlisted in the armed forces in any capacity whatsoever. The prohibition on Senators and Representatives from holding commissions should also extend to any retired officer who has not formally and permanently resigned his commission and permanently forfeited any and all pensions, including medical.
"The 2006 amendment that legalized civilian court-martials was authored by Sen. Lindsey Graham, (R-SC)."
Well, here we have it, a military coup d'etat of sorts from within Congress, as Graham is a reserve officer – JAG, no less. This man so clearly represents the danger of military involvement in government that it is high time that a bill be introduced in Congress, absolutely forbidding any sitting Senator or Representative from holding a commission of any kind in the armed forces, or likewise being enlisted in the armed forces in any capacity whatsoever. The prohibition on Senators and Representatives from holding commissions should also extend to any retired officer who has not formally and permanently resigned his commission and permanently forfeited any and all pensions, including medical.
With this sort of legal background, it's no wonder that Obama is scratching his head over the opposition to his NDAA, because using the military to arrest and try civilians is obviously already on the books.
The US becomes more and more like Egypt every day. Oh, the irony! The US went into the Middle East to "save them from themselves and liberate them" and besides slaughtering millions of innocents, creating chaos and destruction, the only thing they seem to have been able to export is radicalism, fundamentalism and the ways of the very dictators they were claiming to want to deposit. Tragic indeed.
~~~~~~~~~ !!@! W0W… JW nails it… but isn't it common knowledge one becomes one's own enemy….I.E. we become very like the enemy we fight…???…………. Maybe this little morality play by JW explains about a certain group of victims and their kin from another past war, how it is they are starting to parrot every move that their victimizer made… Classic, the abused becoming the abusers………..
It is simple. Geneva, demands that civilian contractors, (4) Persons who accompany the armed forces without actually being members thereof, such as civilian members of military aircraft crews, war correspondents, supply contractors, members of labour units or of services responsible for the welfare of the armed forces, provided that they have received authorization from the armed forces which they accompany, who shall provide them for that purpose with an identity card similar to the annexed model.
Entitiled to Geneva, entitled by the Government to be court martialled for unlawful acts in theatre!
Bad behaviour was rampant in Iraq by Contractors because they were given immunity from prosecution!