Through this trial Washington seeks to undermine Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure, and disregard Miranda rights, which were won by working people decades ago. The actions by U.S. government officials also undermine Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination.

The interrogation of the men detained by FBI agents on foreign soil is part of government attempts to roll back protections codified in the 1966 Miranda decision, which require cops to inform anyone they detain of their right to remain silent and to consult an attorney. This hard-won right was a conquest of the titanic civil rights battles of the 1950s and 1960s.

Before the Miranda ruling, police were able to snatch Blacks and other workers off the streets and jail them for several days while they coerced a "voluntary" confession from them. This is exactly what happened to the four men on trial in New York who had few resources to defend themselves in a legal system already rigged against them.

The U.S. government hopes to turn the bombings to its own advantage. For decades, tens of millions of working people throughout Africa and the Mideast have organized, mobilized, and given their lives in struggle to end the wretched conditions forced upon them by the colonial and imperialist powers. As working people resist the effects of the world capitalist economic crisis, the instability of the capitalist regimes beholden to imperialism increases. Through the trial, and media hype surrounding it, the U.S. rulers are working overtime to smear these struggles as those of mindless religious fanatics, individual terrorists, or ruthless men who will slaughter innocents on command.

Working people should reject this time-worn tactic. As Malcolm X pointed out in a speech one week before his assassination, "With skillful manipulating of the press, they're able to make the victim look like the criminal and the criminal look like the victim."

And this is how Washington hopes it can reinforce its imperial prerogative to arrest someone anywhere in the world and put him or her on trial in U.S. courts, and to carry out military assaults on, and maintain economic dominance over, semicolonial countries. It's important to remember the "justice" already meted out by Washington in response to the embassy bombings with the missile attacks on Afghanistan and the Sudan. After demolishing a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan under pretext that it was producing chemicals used for nerve gas, the U.S. government has still never officially admitted that criminal assault was unjustified. The Militant pointed out at the time that it is Washington, not workers and farmers throughout the region, who is the real terrorist.

The ruling class in Canada is also utilizing the prosecution and media smear campaign against the Sikh community around the Air India explosion to pursue similar inroads against democratic rights and to bolster its prerogatives to send military troops around the globe.

Workers and farmers worldwide can defend our rights and struggles by condemning these trials and frame-ups and rejecting the smear campaign generated by Washington. An injury to one is an injury to all!
 
 
Related articles:
Embassy bombing trial undermines democratic rights
Canadian gov't widens Air India frame-up  
 
 
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