Scalia’s Hysteria

From Dahlia Lithwick’s recap of the Boumediene decision:

Scalia points to the 30 detainees released from Guantanamo—by an order of the Bush administration, not a court, it should be noted—who have allegedly “returned to the battlefield.” One detonated a suicide bomb in Iraq in May. Scalia notes that this “return to the kill” happened even after “the military had concluded they were not enemy combatants” (italics his). So you see, even those who were deemed innocent at Guantanamo are actually guilty in Scalia’s mind. And whether or not they ever get to go home, the mere act of providing them with civilian court oversight will surely endanger yet more American lives. For this proposition, Scalia cites the trial of Omar Abdel Rahman in federal court in 1995, in which the names of 200 unindicted conspirators were leaked to Osama Bin Laden. Just to recap, then, everyone at Guantanamo is guilty, and the mere act of trying them will result in more American deaths. This raises the question of what Scalia would do with these prisoners, many of whom have been held for six years without charges. If they can’t reasonably be tried or released, it must be a great comfort to believe that they are all killers and terrorists, and no further proof is needed.

People always speak of Scalia’s superior and airtight logic, even when they disagree with him. Hopefully this will help knock that myth down, even just a little.