The U.S. government on Monday morning revealed an active plan by terrorists to detonate a dirty nuclear bomb, but CNN's Aaron Brown was much more interested in the rights of the captured suspected terrorist than in what he planned to do. CBS's Dan Rather fretted about John Ashcroft's motives: “The arrest was made May 8th. It's not clear why Ashcroft chose to reveal this a month later with great fanfare while traveling in Russia.” Rather stressed doubts about a plot: “There are many questions now about exactly what the suspect was really up to.”
Before telling viewers anything about what the government says the man planned, Brown opened Monday's NewsNight by lamenting the guy's plight: “An American citizen, Abdullah al Muhajir, is being held in a military brig with no access to a lawyer, none of the other rights afforded to a citizen, because the government says he is part of a terrorist plot to detonate a dirty bomb.” After insisting he's not “interested in seeing a bunch of terrorists running around the country blowing up buildings and killing lots of people while they are out on bail,” Brown put his personal views ahead of the story as he explained how he's “not especially interested in seeing the government deny citizens their most basic protection against governmental abuse.”
Brown went to Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon, who gave equal weight to complaints of “defense lawyers” as to the mass murder plot: “Well, here the Bush administration is touting the detention of this American al-Qaeda as having thwarted a potentially deadly terrorist attack, but many defense attorneys are asking the same question that you're asking. Were basic American rights trampled in the process?”
Brown opened the June 10 NewsNight, as taken down by MRC analyst Brad Wilmouth, with a rant: “Good evening again. I'm Aaron Brown. So here's a nice day at the office. The administration says the half-century-old doctrine of containment in matters military is outdated and the United States in the future will exercise, if it so chooses, a first strike option against terrorists in those countries that harbor them. We've always said we are not a country that starts wars — and mostly that's been true, though perhaps the thugs who ran the island of Grenada might argue the point. It is another sign the world is changing, that the whole notion of war as we used to know it is changing as well. And it's not the only thing that's changing.
“An American citizen, Abdullah al Muhajir is being held in a military brig with no access to a lawyer, none of the other rights afforded to a citizen, because the government says he is part of a terrorist plot to detonate a dirty bomb. He has been held uncharged for a month and now has been declared an enemy combatant, which, according to the Attorney General, is the legal justification for this extraordinary action. I'm not a lawyer, and I have no idea whether this guy was planning something terrible or not, nor am I especially interested in seeing a bunch of terrorists running around the country blowing up buildings and killing lots of people while they are out on bail. But I'm also not especially interested in seeing the government deny citizens their most basic protection against governmental abuse. But that apparently is the tradeoff — at least the administration believes it to be — and it is an onerous tradeoff, one more reason to hate what happened on September 11th.”
Going to his “whip,” having CNN reporters summarize the headline for their upcoming story, for the second story of the night he went to the Pentagon: “Jamie McIntyre, more on the civil liberties questions this raises. From the Pentagon tonight, Jamie, headline?”
McIntyre's headline summary: “Well, here the Bush administration is touting the detention of this American al-Qaeda as having thwarted a potentially deadly terrorist attack, but many defense attorneys are asking the same question that you're asking. Were basic American rights trampled in the process?”
Earlier, Dan Rather led the CBS Evening News with a hostile attitude toward the story not displayed by ABC or NBC:
“Good evening. The U.S. government announced today it has broken up another plot to attack this country and kill Americans.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said a U.S. citizen, a former convict, arrested in Chicago on return from Pakistan, is suspected of plotting with the al-Qaeda terror network to set off a radioactive bomb, a so-called dirty bomb, possibly in Washington. Later, questions arose about that. The arrest was made May 8th. It's not clear why Ashcroft chose to reveal this a month later with great fanfare while traveling in Russia. And tonight, as CBS's Jim Stewart reports, there are many questions now about exactly what the suspect was really up to.”
Stewart began his piece: “U.S. officials now admit they're not sure what American born Abdullah al Muhajir had plans for when he tried to get back into the U.S. through Chicago last month, but given what he trained for in Afghanistan they expected the worse.”
The Washington Post's Dan Eggen and Susan Schmidt suggested a reason for the timing Rather made sound so suspicious. In a June 11 story, they reported: “After concluding that building a case would be difficult, prosecutors believed they were running out of time. They faced a secret hearing Tuesday before a judge, officials said, and turned in recent days to another option: transferring him to military custody.
“On Sunday, prosecutors dropped the material witness warrant and withdrew a subpoena ordering al Muhajir to testify before the grand jury. After Bush signed a directive naming him as an enemy combatant, U.S. marshals escorted al Muhajir out of jail and turned him over to the military.”
(This update courtesy of the Media Research Center.)
