By Paolo von Schirach
Aprile 22, 2013
WASHINGTON – The media circus surrounding the aftermath of the Boston terror bombing continues. This is bad. The more publicity this or any act of terror receives, the more interest is engendered in engaging in similar acts of violence. From now on it is only up to intelligence services and law enforcement. Let them do their job.
Enemy combatant
My only comment is that there is ample merit in treating 19 year old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, an American citizen by naturalization, as an enemy combatant. Given the obvious but not at all clear connection between the two brothers and Dagestan-Chechnya, it is only natural that the US Government wants to understand how deep and how significant this connection may be.
It is really hard to believe that there is no cause and effect between the older brother’s recent visit to Dagestan and the act of terror perpetrated by the two. It is clear that America needs to know whether this Boston bombing is just a spontaneous act concocted by two disaffected immigrants or if they got inspiration and possibly support from other groups, abroad or in the US. More broadly, it is important to know whether there may be others like to the two brothers out there, possibly groomed to engaged in similar acts of terror on US soil.
Let the pros work on this
This being the case, there is ample reason for treating the survivor as an enemy combatant, so that he can be interrogated without any of the constitutional protections normally provided to any defendant.
That said, please let the professional work on this and give this matter a rest.