Making way for jihad.(Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror)(Book review)

NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 29

THE categorical opponents of the detainee bill should spend an unhappy hour reading the new book by Mary Habeck. She is a scholar at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins whose book, Knowing the Enemy, is subtitled Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror. It undertakes to tell the reader things about the jihadist offensive which we should know about and take into account when weighing legislative initiatives.

The scene in Washington was as follows. The president, commander in chief of our army, navy, and air force and, as such, principal agent of the national security, took to Congress an impasse. It had been created by the Supreme Court. Exercising its authority to opine on deviations from past constitutional practice having to do with human rights, the Court ruled that we could not legitimately proceed, as we have been doing in Guantanamo, to detain foreigners for interrogation and other purposes without reference to such constitutional narrative as is implicit under habeas corpus. That doctrine specifies that the American citizen is the master of his own movements--putting the burden of respecting that sovereignty on the government.

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The protection of habeas corpus does not necessarily extend to those who are not U.S. citizens. The Geneva Conventions are designed to shed light on the standing of foreigners who find themselves behind bars set up by the U.S. army. The conventions cited are inadequate to current purposes, because they sought to illuminate our authority over persons who had served in armies against which the U.S. contended in war.

The problem crystallized soon after 9/11, namely what do we call people who are suspected of participating in activity mortal to U.S. interests, but who do not wear any chevron of allegiance to a formal foreign body. President Bush took what can perhaps be criticized as the easiest way out--he simply assumed authority over them. Moreover, he went further than merely detaining them. Many were suspected of being privy to organized activity against us. Some of these suspects have been handled, we ...