Irony Is Alive And Well In Berkeley

Remember those signs? The City Council of the People's Republic of Berkeley passed a series of ordinances designed to drive Marine Corps recruiters out of the hallowed haunts of radical wretchedness. While America is at war with a vile mass-murdering terrorist enemy disguised as a religion, Berkeley decided that it was no place for the Marine Corps that had put its first overseas action into its hymn: "To the shores of Tripoli." Same enemy, different century, different location.

OK, that's typical of Berkeley, but not ironic. The irony comes a couple years after the height of the Marine Corps brouhaha. Berkeley has a dandy little leftist governmental entity called, believe it or not, the Peace and Justice Commission. The Marine Corps is in charge of the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay on the island of Cuba. An American city chooses to insult, demean and ban a branch of the US military during a time of war. In order to complete its disloyal slap at America, the Berkeley City Council, acting on the recommendation of the Peace and Justice Commission, has decided to be the premier welcomer of "one or two Guantanamo Bay detainees and use city funds to assist them in resettling in Berkeley." Terrorists, yes. Marines, no.

Now settle down. As Al Jolson famously said, "you ain't seen nothin' yet." To make sure that nobody could mistake the intentions of the Commission and the Council, Commissioner Rita Maran says: "The idea is to invite to Berkeley the kind of people you'd like to have living next door to you, or dating your cousin." Maybe, if you like neighbors such as Jeffrey Dahmer or potential relatives like the Hillside Strangler. The Islamic terrorists likely to become the new mayor and chief of police of Berkeley are one Russian and one Algerian. The weasel-word of the feds is "cleared" and the weasel-words of the Commission are "they pose no threat to the United States." True enough, if they had been kept at Guantanamo.

"Cleared" means that the terrorists might not be convicted by a jury if they had been charged with civilian murders, committed on American soil, in a court using the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt. It's another example of the left, and particularly the Obama administration, not understanding the rules of war, the Geneva Conventions, and the difference between civilian criminal charges and enemy combatants captured in a theater of war. And then there's that small detail of a Supreme Court gone mad allowing the right of habeas corpus for wartime detainees captured outside the United States who are not American citizens. A number of warriors for Allah have been "cleared" using habeas corpus, a procedure never even seriously considered by any previous Supreme Court.

What did the weak-spined Commander-in-Chief's own task force have to say about the 240 detainees at Guantanamo? Couched in words more elegant than mine, they determined that while some detainees may be deserving of transfer or conditional release outside the United States, none of them are innocent wandering clerics or schoolmarms. A prime example of a "cleared" detainee is Ahmed Ghailani, charged with being an active conspirator and agent of Al Qaeda in the 1998 US Embassy bombing. By the time the clever leftist legal eagles got done, he had been demoted from co-conspirator to "Osama bin Laden's cook."

That one worked so well that one of the future Berkeley residents went from being an enemy combatant to being a bookworm and a chef, who learned his high culinary art in Kabul, Afghanistan. The other has gone from being a terrorist trained at the Al Farouq terrorist training camp to being a Russian ballet dancer who experienced anti-Muslim sentiment, moved to a Muslim country, and just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The only people crazier than these guys are the fools in Berkeley who want to welcome them with open arms.

The Director of National Intelligence reported last December that 25% of released ("cleared") detainees have been subsequently confirmed to be back in the terrorism business (whether as chefs or ballet dancers is unclear). The Berkeley City Council may be gamblers, but I'm not. I am not going to be in charge of the welcome wagon for neighbors who have a 25% chance of slitting my throat as I'm heading out for church on Sunday.

And so I close with a quote from my favorite UC Berkeley law professor and former adviser to President Bush, John Yoo: "It's the perfect combination of futility and stupidity. It is futile because what happens to Gitmo detainees is up to the federal government. It is stupid because only Berkeley would want to be a magnet for resettlement of Gitmo detainees." I agree with Professor Yoo in principle, but I do want to point out that there is such a place as Ann Arbor, Michigan.