Letter to the Yale Daily News


Published Wednesday, November 28, 2001
Flaws with international tribunals, American courts not reason enough to abandon them


To the Editor:

I regret not having been at Yale Law School professor Ruth Wedgwood's speech on Monday night ("International law expert favors military tribunals," 11/27) to hear her full argument in favor of military tribunals to try terrorists.

From the article in the Yale Daily News, however, I garnered that the bulk of her argument rested on presenting problems with international tribunals and federal court cases.

Yet only to point out problems in the existing systems, just as death penalty supporters so often accuse our criminal justice system of being unable to keep violent prisoners incarcerated long enough, does not alone justify this new course of action.

The moral quandary over secret military tribunals in which we deprive the accused and the American public of their usual rights, like the moral quandary over execution, does not disappear simply because other solutions are seen as problematic.

The United States can either work to strengthen international tribunals and allow them more flexibility, thus building up the framework in which we will bring future terrorists and war criminals to justice, or we can turn our back on that challenge and instead favor military tribunals, a system which has always been used at great cost to democracy.

Adam Rosenblatt
Alumnus
Saybrook, Class of 2000
Austin, Texas
posted by Adam at 10:32 AM [edit]

Yes, I am writing this after we spoke on the phone and you were sad.
The first thing I thought of was apple trees: how we trust them.
The apples that are like green faces blushing red. When you bite
the first time, interrupting the sacredness of that globe, a section
slides startled into your mouth. So far from its home, so suddenly.
Another sweet-tasting victim of autumn. I don't know why
I thought of apples, which to me lately are just a row of names
in the supermarket, a sticker I must peel off, another fruit I must
wash before putting it in the bag with the rest of my lunch. But
think of apples I did, and somehow it meant you, now,
which to me will always also mean us, then, always.
posted by Adam at 12:43 AM [edit]

Some detectives

1. The polite detective:

The polite detective shows his face and bends his knee, and pretends he doesn't want what he wants from you.
Don't let him look through your eyeglasses, though he says he must borrow them just to tie his shoe.
Once he's seen what you've seen, you will never see it again.

2. The detective who climbs on top of tall buildings and offers you the cosmos, the moon and stars, fun, immortality, fear of breathing but the courage to hurt people you love, every weekend truly free, a platonic massage, an actual understanding of football, the ability to genuinely convince the other side, statistics with meaning:

He is an inveterate liar and has none of these things to give you.
On the other hand, has anyone made a better offer?

3. The graceful detective:

People were always telling him, "You're in the wrong line of work. You should be in Hollywood, a movie star, or a raindrop at least."
"No, he said, as he tiptoed around the clues and suddenly twirled, "A detective's life is for me. Do you know how many beautiful mirrors I find in all these clues?"

4. The detective who shot:

He was an incredible marksman but he could not look at those he shot. With the brilliance of a welfare-reformer or Contra-supporter, he closed his eyes and shot shot shot shot shot shot shot shot shot...
posted by Adam at 6:23 PM [edit]