Murderous thugs of the world, rejoice. Once again, Ramsey Clark has come to your aid — whether you want him to or not. Now, if only Clark would permanently move himself and his “Terrorists ‘R Us” law practice to a sand dune outpost in Kandahar, we’d all have something to cheer.
Last weekend, the former U.S. attorney general under Lyndon Johnson and his anti-war buddies filed a court petition on behalf of more than 100 terrorism suspects challenging their detention at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba. According to Clark’s neo-Stalinist front group, the International Action Center, the U.S. is violating the detainees’ human rights by not providing them with basic amenities such as “adequate clothing, underwear and footwear;” “fairly priced food, soap, tobacco and ordinary items;” and “complete latitude in the exercise of religion.”
Photos and reports from Camp X-Ray show just the opposite. We’re bending over backwards to accommodate these unlawful combatants. For example, to assist detainees in the practice of their religion, base officials posted a helpful sign in Arabic pointing to the direction of Mecca. How do the al Qaeda fighters return the favor? The Miami Herald reports that one detainee, who deliberately faced away from the sign, used Muslim prayer time to exhort his troops.
When they’re not “praying,” the detainees chow down on “culturally appropriate” meals three times a day. Several have been visited by Red Cross workers. And each detainee has received an orange jumpsuit, sandals, a canteen, sheet, blanket, and shampoo.
What, no conditioner? No goose down pillow? No dry cleaning? Oh, the brutality.
In addition to steam baths and pedicures, Ramsey Clark and Co. want “due process” for the al Qaeda operatives whom they claim are prisoners of war covered by the Third Geneva Convention. But no serious reading of international law allows the al Qaeda detainees to be defined as POWs. They did not fight with readily identifiable military uniforms; they did not carry arms openly; and they have no reciprocal respect for the laws of war.
No matter. Clark’s agenda is neither peace nor justice. It is terrorist ambulance-chasing. He is far less concerned with freeing the innocent than with allying himself with America’s enemies at every turn — the gorier, the better. This is the man who:
- — Flew to Hanoi to give aid and comfort to the North Vietnamese while American POWs were being beaten, tortured, and killed;
- — Flew to Tehran to condemn the “Crimes of America” while his fellow citizens were being held hostage by Iranian militants;
- — Flew to Tripoli to cheer up Colonel Mohamar Qaddafi after the U.S. bombed Libya terrorist training facilities;
- — Flew to France to kneel at the feet of the late Ayatollah Khomeini;
- — Flew to Baghdad to consult with Saddam Hussein;
- — Flew to the defense of PLO leaders sued by the family of Leon Klinghoffer, the wheelchair-bound American tourist who was shot and tossed overboard from the cruise ship Achille Lauro by Palestinian commandos in 1986;
- — Flew to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic’s side, in a show of solidarity against American imperialism, to defend him against charges of genocide, rape, and torture against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo;
- — Flew to the aid of indicted Rwanda genocide conspirator Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, a Hutu pastor accused of luring hundreds of Tutsi men, women, and children into his church and hospital compound — where they were massacred by gunmen and grenade-throwers; and
- — Flew to support the 1993 World Trade Center bombers (he played the race card for sympathetic minority jurors by decrying our racist judicial system), and continues to represent Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, the scheming Muslim cleric now in federal prison for his role in planning New York City terrorist attacks.
Ramsey Clark’s record is not one of principled pacifism, but of compulsive anti-Americanism. The peace-loving doves who follow his path are flying on blood-stained wings.
