America's biggest traitor in our war against terrorism should die.
God help me. I'm not a death-penalty nut, but there are crimes so vile, so horrendous that they deserve society's wrath, a final solution. Serial killers, terrorists and adults who intentionally kill children fit the bill. They deserve death.
John Walker was no innocent. If Walker said all the things that the government accuses him of boasting about during questioning, then the 20-year-old Californian was a traitor. He knowingly backed the killing of Americans and, in fact, admitted publicly he began training in Osama bin Laden's terrorist camps for that purpose last May pure and simple.
Walker may not have piloted a plane into the World Trade Center or the Pentagon he may not have shot one American soldier or CIA operative in Afghanistan but he made a choice nonetheless to support those who would destroy his own country. And he took up arms against us.
For me, that's worse than anything a foreigner would want to do to us. Walker turned his back on his people, and he trained in camps for two terrorist organizations, no less bin Laden's al-Qaida network and the Harkat ul-Mujahedeen.
Walker wasn't in the dark about those two terrorist groups' intentions. The government's conspiracy case against him, which allows a life sentence, makes that clear. According to the FBI's affidavit, Walker told investigators that as early as June of last year, he knew that there were al-Qaida plots to kill Americans en masse in this country. He didn't cut and run then.
Oh, no. He trained some more in explosives and firearms at a terrorist camp. And, investigators say, he told them he learned of the Sept. 11 attacks either that very same day or the next while listening to the radio. Did he cut and run then?
No, he decided to take up arms and fight alongside the murderous Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which was aiding and abetting bin Laden and his terrorist cells.
Even after his capture, in interviews with reporters, Walker was unapologetic about his admiration for bin Laden. Walker says bin Laden thanked him personally on one occasion for his commitment to participate in jihad, or a holy war, against the United States.
Why cut this guy any break?
We have young men in this country who have been sentenced to death for driving a getaway car in a planned stick-up that resulted in a dead store owner, sentenced to die even when they didn't pull the trigger. So why should Walker be given a pass?
Because he was young and foolish and grew up in a lousy home? Because he might be mentally unstable? Well, let his defense attorneys argue those points. Not the government.
Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft pointed out the obvious in Walker's case: "Youth is not absolution for treachery, and personal self-discovery is not an excuse to take up arms against your country."
I thought I would never say this, but this is one time when Ashcroft went soft even as he talked tough. I've taken issue with Ashcroft's penchant for secret military tribunals and his call for the interrogation of thousands of Arab men in this country without any reason to suspect they are terrorists. What's more treasonous than joining camps run by terrorist groups bent on America's destruction, for heaven's sake? How will it look to the Arab people in the Middle East? America, which is supposed to stand for justice for all, seeks only a life sentence for one of its own in a civilian court but is prepared to try foreigners in secret tribunals. And most likely seek their death.
Forget for a moment that meeting the legal standard for treason might be difficult in this case. The government could make that charge nonetheless, to use as a bargaining chip to get a life sentence at the very least. Instead, it offers life in prison as its harshest punishment for an American who ate, slept and chanted with the devil incarnate.
We're hung up on a legal burden of proof when we should be focusing on our moral obligation to the thousands of innocents who died on 9-11.
They deserve justice.
Myriam Marquez is an editorial page columnist for the Orlando Sentinel. Her e-mail address is mmarquez@orlandosentinel.com.
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