Many commentators suggested that it was not feasible for our civilian judicial system to handle a man like Zacarias Moussaoui. Dahlia Lithwick reports in Slate on the hearing today:
“I don’t have outside legal assistance,” he sputters (apparently forgetting about the five stand-by lawyers she’s appointed). “I didn’t have a printer until today.” He calls his computer “aging” and says it would take him until the trial simply to load all the CD-ROMs the government has produced for his discovery requests. “This is a farce of justice!” he cries.
The man is either crazy or stupid (he tried to enter a plea of guilty, perhaps, as Lithwick speculates, because he though the judge wanted him to plead not guilty). But, he is no threat to the common law system that has been the right of citizens since Habeas Corpus was guaranteed in the fields of Runymede in 1215.
It is time to fix the travesty of not giving Padilla and Hamdi access to counsel. Finally, a Federal District Court judge today ordered the government to explain within a week how they could hold a man without charges.
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