“Fracture,” the Film, Stars Anthony Hopkins

“Fracture” is a film starring actor Anthony Hopkins which opens with what seems to be an open and shut case of murder. The hyper-intelligent physicist/engineer and main character, played by Hopkins, learns that his wife is having an affair and constructs an elaborate plan to get away with murder. In the opening scenes, the Hopkins character pulls out a Glock and shoots his wife in the head. Hopkins is discovered by a police detective responding to the shooting, smoking gun in hand, shell casings on the floor, and he immediately confesses to the murder. His wife is lying bleeding on the floor in the next room. Convicting the killer should be a slam-dunk, no?

The rest of the film will remind movie fans of the case of Zacarias Moussaouai, often known as the 20^th hijacker of 9-11. Moussaoui and his lawyers mocked the American court system, delaying it for years and providing a fine pulpit for Al Qaeda propaganda. The trial process was marred by procedural mistakes which had the judge halt the trial at one point and threaten to eliminate the death penalty from the list of possible sentencing consequences. In the film “Fracture,” the Anthony Hopkins character gets the most probative evidence thrown out by the judge because of a grievous error in the prosecution procedure. The killer is successful in moving for acquittal due to a lack of evidence in the state’s case.

Habeas corpus rules extended to terrorist combatants is a prescription designed to punish terror victims more than terror perpetrators. Moussaoui made particular use of the “Brady rule” which is a 2^nd cousin of habeas corpus; the Brady rule requires that the prosecution hand over any exculpatory evidence they may have uncovered in their investigation. That’s well and good in protecting rights of American citizens from unjust prosecutions, but it guarantees a stage bigger than Lincoln Center for Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and other Guantanamo residents.

Under the Brady umbrella, KSM’s lawyers may expect the prosecution to produce “eyewitnesses” and an endless cascade of innuendo which supports a view quite different (exculpatory, but not evidence) from that of prosecutors. Surviving victims and their families will have to listen to much of it, in spite of what Attorney General Eric Holder tells us about keeping control of the court process and his public certainty that KSM and others will be found guilty. I can’t wait until verdicts are appealed based on Attorney General Holder’s prejudicial statements to all of America and the world. Contradictions such as these will be duly noted in the world of extremist Islamic fundamentalism.

Taking terrorists out of Guantanamo and trying them in criminal court can only be seen as a reach for political cover where the concept of justice is made subordinate to the Court of Anti-American Public Opinion. The hope, of course, is that this will somehow raise the American banner in the world; the truth is that criminal trials of foreign terrorists and battlefield combatants will provide a daily menu of expensive ingredients for militant Islamic propaganda. Did we hear resounding praise around the world when the Obama team made that decision? Cynical smirks, perhaps a few smiles, but America will remain the Great Satan so long as we assume the role of Great Enabler. If we do not reverse course by keeping Guantanamo open and trying terrorist combatants by military tribunal, the good that America does in the world “will be interred with our bones”, as Shakespeare said.

Those who allege that military tribunals cannot provide fair trials for terrorists who are proud enough to boast of their participation have yet to demonstrate how the much vaunted anti-Guantanamo Constitutional fervor has spread around the world of militant Islam. I can tell you plainly that it was not reached Tehran where Ahmadinajad’s regime goons are still mowing people down in the streets. Nor has it reached Sudan, nor Yemen, not Syria or the Taliban. In fact, it hasn’t seemed to go beyond the Obama administration’s press clippings.