After three weeks in Israel, including trips to the border of Lebanon and Syria, I have become increasingly concerned over the nature of freedoms struggle against Islam. Just last week in the Middle East, another act of violence shattered what has been a relatively peaceful Jerusalem. In fact, as I am writing this post, four people are dead in city streets that I walked on just days ago. Those bent on the destruction of freedom-loving people have something in commonthey are all part of a radical Islamist regime dedicated to destroying Judeo-Christian traditions as well as freedom and liberty. Two weeks ago, our U.S. Supreme Court issued a devastating opinion in a case involving Guantanamo Bay detainees. At the time of the decision, I noted that the Supreme Court of Israel came to the exact opposite conclusion than that reached by the United States Supreme Court.
I arrived at the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) offices in Strasbourg, France last Sunday. Most of last week was spent in meetings with a number of our staff. I have also had the privilege of working alongside former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, who was with us in Israel and is now here at our ECLJ offices; click here for photos. In addition to training 35 law students from around the world on national security issues, we are strategizing on some key developments. One thing has become crystal clear over the last weekthe war against radical Islam is increasing significantly. Justice Scalia wrote an impassioned dissenting opinion in Boumediene v. Bush. His dissenting opinion was joined by Chief Justice Roberts as well as Justices Thomas and Alito. The tragedy of the case is that, as Justice Scalia noted, for the first time in our Nations history, the Court confers a constitutional right to habeas corpus on alien enemies detained abroad by our military forces in the course of an ongoing war. Justice Scalia took the unusual step of beginning his analysis with a description of the disastrous consequences of what the Court has done today. When one goes throughout Europe, it becomes evident that the Islamic threat is real and growing. Justice Scalia acknowledged this in his opinion when he wrote:
America is at war with radical Islamists. The enemy began by killing Americans and American allies abroad: 241 at the Marine barracks in Lebanon, 19 at the Khobar Towers in Dhahran, 224 at our embassies in Dar Es Salaam and Nairobi, and 17 on the USS Cole in Yemen. On September 11, 2001, the enemy brought the battle to American soil, killing 2,749 at the Twin Towers in New York City, 184 at the Pentagon in Washington, D. C., and 40 in Pennsylvania.
[Emphasis added]. In talking about the practical realities of the impact of the Courts opinion and the scope of our battle with Islam, Justice Scalia wrote:
The game of bait and switch that todays opinion plays upon the Nations Commander-in-Chief will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed. That consequence would be tolerable if necessary to preserve a time-honored legal principle vital to our constitutional Republic. But it is this Courts blatant abandonment of such a principle that produces the decision today.
[Bold emphasis added.]
One of the things that Justice Scalia noted throughout his opinion is the fact that 40 of the prisoners held at Guantanomo Bay and who have been released have now returned to the battlefield against U.S. interests. Justice Scalias analysis of the raging battle with radical Islam is correct. The Courts opinion makes unnervingly clear [that] how to handle enemy prisoners in this war will ultimately lie with the branch that knows least about the national security concerns that the subject entails. . . . And, most tragically, it sets our military commanders the impossible task of proving to a civilian court, under whatever standards this Court devises in the future, that evidence supports the confinement of each and every enemy prisoner. The Nation will live to regret what the Court has done today.
Next week on our radio broadcast, I will be doing a special series of programs from our ECLJ headquarters. On the program will be a number of our senior attorneys, as well as former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. We will be taking live call-ins and will let you know how you can confront this ever-increasing problem with radical Islam. The fact of the matter is, as I write this, the United Nations is considering the defamation of religion provision, which would make it a crime to speak out against Islam. The ramifications of these actions are significant and the consequences stunning. More information will be available later this week, but I wanted you to get a sense of what Im finding on this trip throughout Europe and the Middle East.
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