I haven’t written anything about the case of Hassan Abu-Jihaad, the former US Navy sailor accused of having passed details of ship movements and vulnerabilities to terrorist-linked groups because until today, the man was one of us. His ship escorted mine through the Strait of Hormuz in the spring of 2001 – five months before 9/11, and seven months after the suicide attack on the USS Cole. I might have seen him on the signal bridge during an alongside refueling.
But a jury of his peers has weighed the evidence and found him guilty, and now he is no longer a sailor nor even an ex-sailor but a traitor, now and forever. A traitor, further, that deliberately hazarded the lives of his shipmates – people he lived among, worked alongside, broke bread with – and shredded the oath he had taken to the country that had given him birth.
He should be flogged through the fleet before being keel hauled, his remains hung from a yardarm as a salutory example. Instead he may get up to 25 years in prison.
I suppose it will have to do.
Well, he seems definitely disappointing, but did he levy War against us, or adhere to our enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort? (as Jane did)
Was there testimony by two Witnessess to the same overt Act, or Confession in open Court?
The Constitution defines treason pretty narrowly.
He’s a disloyal oath-breaker, though, that’s for sure.
Hope he gets Big Bubba, (preferably a disgraced Marine martial arts enthusiast) as a cell mate at Leavenworth. Hope they dont have any unfortunate accidents while he is incarcerated, lest it spoils Bubba’s friendship.
Keelhauling and flooging are more than deserved in this case. ACLU be damned.
I’d rather see him put into solitary confinement. Give him a toothbrush and a cup, a matress, two sheets and a blanket, a pillow and pillow case. Give him a paor of socks, some underwear, a jumpsiot and pull-on slippers. Give him three meals a day.
Nobody speaks to him, his door is never opened. Lights come on and off automatically. He gets no books, no radio, no cantact with any human being forever.
Lastly, I’d set a single-edged razor blade on his sink before I walked out and locked the door.
I would keep sliding his food trays under his door until they stopped coming out.
Then I would weld the door shut and turn off the lights.
Other’s mileage, of course, may vary.
Chill Lex, chill…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T5GWmkTYO8&eurl=http://no-pasaran.blogspot.com/
Think of something beautiful.
Moderation? Plus the shot clock? What has happened to this site???
Yeah, what AW1 Tim said. Almost seems a little too kind for him though…I’d give him the razor then stand and watch him use it.
Is it the result of Heart ruling over the Head?
Nice choice, Babs, but here is my musical selection for this… TRAITOR.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1shSJVOXHPI
The shot clock? Heck, I like it.
Hey peter, to each his own and maybe we are of different gererations but, I like mine better…
Hmm….
This is more my style:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6iwKJp312g
But then, I tend to see the world in black and silver…
AW1 – Were you just waiting for a reason to post this?
Somehow I get that feeling…
Babs,
I like yours too
Anything that has velvet & underground in the same sentence is always worth the time to investigate. It’s even better if it includes black leather, some sort of firearm, and whiskey.
Add in a little Hendrix, some WHO, Black Sabbath and maybe a little Sisters of Mercy and you’ve the makings of a first class time
Babs,
Oh no…. I have everything Manson ever recorded, including some rare singles from overseas.
Babs, I liked your tunes; I like it all, but prefer Brightman and Bocelli. I mean, who wouldn’t like THEM? Sorry that you apparently missed the title: “Time to Say Goodbye”. Some may say it’s fitting in this case.
AW1 Tim, the video was great; the music, not so much… sorry about that. Heavy metal is just not where I go in the music store.
Brightman.
I flew a cross-country AA flight, first class. Mebbe 25 years ago. Redeye. My last flight on a 707, prolly.
This female was in the row in front of me. I was asked if I ever heard of her by the FA. I said “nope.’ Brightman was offended.
We encountered severe turbulence on that flight halfway across the country.
#1 exited the flight deck whistling the theme to “The High and the Mighty.”
I sat there and began to laugh my a$$ off.
Brightman nearly cried from fear.
I still never heard of her, even after hearing her.
That’s my story and I’m sticking by it.
I’m still wondering who the bright adjudicator was who decided to give “abu Jihad” a security clearance.
Or who was the recruiter so desperate to make his quota, or his regional so willing to bite the bullet to make his quota.
The oaths US soldiers, sailors and Marines (not to mention Congressmen and Presidents, among others) take explicitly forbid dual allegiances. Islam, which allows no allegiance to take precedence before it, allows its adherents to say whatever they want so long as it benefits Islam.
I knew a Hebrew speaker who entered a cryptology program. At a certain point in his training he realized who he, as a Hebrew speaker, would be monitoring. He asked for time to think, took a few days, and once he had sorted out where his loyalties lay, he returned to duty. Too late, his clearance had been yanked. He was never even granted a Secret, and finished his Navy tour honorably in a job far, far away from cryptology. Yet we’re in a screaming rush to make Muslims pilots, ship COs, intel analysts, flag advisors, undersecretaries.
How many more Americans will die or be betrayed by this fifth column before we finally recognize that an adherent to Islam is not suitable for military service?
AW1Tims approach is worthy, I’d only make a slight alteration: The cell should be aboard a barge anchored off of NAVSTA Norfolk. It should have a barred window in full view of the fleet. The razor should be withheld for one year. Other than that, I like it.
Nah, Lee,and AW, a rope, with the noose already tied, hanging from the ceiling. And a stool of just the right height, to stand upon and kick over. Not my idea, was in one of Arthur Clarke’s later novels, presumably mostly written by the co-author. Other than that, same dull, dreary cell, dull dreary food, no human contact, no books, no radio, no TV, no soap, no toilet paper, and yeah the cell door is welded shut.
Does anyone here recall The Man Without A Country, condemned for his treason (to America) to spend his life at sea, never to put into port, any port, again? Shunned by all on board and able to talk to no one?
Seems to me that it fits.
Zane,
Oh yes. In my youth, I first encountered the story in the “Classics” comic book edition. It impressed me mightily, and more so as I grew older. That’s psrtly what my ideas above were based upon.
Oh shoot him between the eyes and be done with it! Need someone to do it? Here I am, but you better hurry, I’ve got a hair appointment, packages to send to my troops and I haven’t written my letter to my Marines yet this week.
Well I was reading SJS about how they are going to sink the Forrestal in the near future and that led me to this idea. Lock the SOB in the Forrestal’s brig before setting off the charges.
@Zane: This is crap. You are tarring with a brush too broad in this case. There is a difference between the honorable shipmates I serve alongside that happen to be Muslim and this dumb bunny.
I’d say the new articles have been rather clear on this. Reporting ship movements and unit composition to AQ? Providing material support? IANAL, but it sounds pretty close to me.
Zane,
Gotta agree with Chap. Too broad a brush and may be unconstitutional. You are saying being a Muslim is incompatible with mil service.
I think right now we need those 1st 2nd gem MuslimMiddle Eastern speakers in the mil. Sure there’s risk but in my view we should vett the American born folks who become Muslims (WakerLind/Jose Pedillo and this dude come to mind) just as thoroughly as we do the mentally disabled and the drug addicted…That’s legit.
Exempting them for theiir religion isn’t gonna fly. Not in America.
What you state here is true:
“Islam, which allows no allegiance to take precedence before it, allows its adherents to say whatever they want so long as it benefits Islam.”
However problematic as it appears the U.S. principles are of a higher moral authority (IMO) and any American who hapopens to be Muslim (or any traitor) that would breach this trust and their oaths should be keel hauled as Lex proposes…
b2
A blindfold, a post, and 6 rifles at dawn.
Lex, this is confusing. Are we at a State of War? The difference between the Jane Fonda fiasco and this “individual” is one very critically important point, this “individual” took an oath of honor. Honor is such an old word, but it carries with it such great importance. In my humble opinion, this case should be retried. It should be retried in person with a jury of 17. The final judgement should come from a particular group of Those 17 Patriots, who gave the last full measure, who served aboard the USS Cole.
Respectfully,
Grumpy
Chap/b2, this is not an easy one to solve, but until we honestly address the inherent conflict of interest within Islam, we are only going to foster the 5th column. And it exists.
At one time it existed within branches of Christianity, too. The swearing of oaths was felt to be a sin. Someone else can explain why, it’s an argument that doesn’t seem to be too relevant to Christians anymore.
Up top of this page Lex has a post about Jeffrey Jamaleldine. Muslim/Arab name. But nowhere in the article anywhere does Jamaleldine describe or identify himself as a Muslim. He only wants to be an American. But anyone who is serious about adhering to Islam, to fulfilling the diktat of Sharia, cannot also be an American. They cannot adhere to a creed that states we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights. They cannot adhere to a belief in the equality of all men before the law. To the extent that they are good Americans, or “good guys,” to that same extent they are disregarding the fundamental teachings of their religion.
There are no theologians in Islam. That is because Allah is unknowable, utterly unreachable by the human mind. All we can know of Allah is the revelation he made to Muhammad in the recitation, or Koran. That is why all scholarship in Islam is legal scholarship, the study of the laws of Islam. Islam’s laws predate man, they are eternal and unchanging. And they come head to head with any Western notion of divinely endowed rights, or natural right, or self government.
In other words, whether or not you want to admit it, our buddy Abu Jihad was being a good Muslim. And if he was already a devout Muslim at the time he raised his right hand and swore his oath, there was no way he could do so truthfully, without any mental reservation or purpose to evade.
The security clearance system is biased towards granting access in the absence of any negative information found in the course of the appropriate investigation. It would seem clear to me that identification as a Muslim, while perhaps not sufficient grounds to deny access, is certainly sufficient ground for very close scrutinization. If it was sufficient to deny an American of the Jewish religion any clearance whatsoever, why is not sufficient to deny a Muslim?
Chap, not to quibble, but just how many Muslim shipmates do you have? Because in my 18 years in the Navy, I’ve only encountered a few, certainly less than a half-dozen. That doesn’t seem too broad a brush to me, that a very small minority is subject to some extra scrutiny before they pass ship’s movements our sworn enemies, or roll grenades into tents to kill fellow soldiers, or hightail it to Lebanon with all their knowledge of the Marine HUMINT system (and from Lebanon, take a wild-ass guess who got a hold of him then).
b2, I’ve worked with the gators and the terps, and the terps are cases. Anyone who’s worked with native-speaking Arab terps will tell you that nearly all of them are fundamentally untrustworthy. I won’t bore you with my war stories, just the thought of the Marine fleeing to Lebanon should be caution enough. Instead of relying on people who have a built-in incentive to play games with interpretations, we should be jamming native-born Americans with no Islamic background to possibly compromise them through DLS, at record rates with financial incentives.
Ironically, as I type the ad at the bottom of the page is “Learn Hebrew Online, with Israel’s best teachers.” America’s best Arab speakers the Christian Arabs and Jewish Arabs who are systematically turned down whenever they apply to help with translation. Where is Cornwallis’ band to play, “The World Turned Upside Down?”
I’m with Samantha and Roachman on this one. And I need target practice.
The Russians had a solution for problems like this. There is a long hallway in the Lubyanka Prison. No prisoner who started down that hallway ever reached the end of it.
Zane,
I did write something back to your #27 but it disappeared in the sausage I reckon..maybe I pushed the wrong button or pulled the wrong chad.
In a nutshell, I do agree that the threat is there as you lay out and probably and unfortunately is inevitable, however, the law and the constitution won’t allow what you propose to be implemented.
Maybe I should of just restricted my comments to coming up with all devices of tortue and execution for the traitor…..like the herd above.
b2
Would Americans of the 1940s suspect an American citizen who changed his name from Al Bartlett to Adolph Blitzkriegsohn? This is America, apparently we need to give even the extremely suspect the benefit of the doubt, even if it kills us.