The U.S. government is pushing to use the death penalty on several related fronts--in the spy trial of former FBI agent Robert Hanssen, the execution of Timothy McVeigh, and the case of four men kidnapped from abroad and convicted in a U.S. court for the 1998 bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa.

To win support for the first federal execution since 1963, the U.S. government chose Timothy McVeigh, an ultrarightist convicted of the Oklahoma City bombings, as an easy target. The temporary postponement of McVeigh’s execution, after the FBI admitted it had withheld thousands of pages of documents containing evidence that neither the defense lawyer nor the jury had been able to review, was used to Washington’s advantage. U.S. officials are proclaiming that the postponement shows the "fairness" of the judicial system, while at the same time using the FBI’s routine trampling of rights as a precedent to use "secret evidence" in cases against anyone accused of being a terrorist. Meanwhile, the big-business media has sought to whip up a pro-death penalty campaign, with headlines screaming, "It’s time to die" and "Get the needle ready."

A parallel move against democratic rights--one that working people should speak out against--is the seizure in Africa, and the trial and conviction in the United States, of four men accused of the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. By kidnapping citizens of other countries, the U.S. government seeks to assert its prerogative to intervene in and violate other nations’ sovereignty. The FBI conducted interrogations denying the accused their right to legal representation and protection against self-incrimination. This is the first time the death penalty is sought against "foreigners" on charges stemming from events abroad. The violation of rights was so blatant that it has sparked a storm of controversy in South Africa, where one of the four, a Tanzanian citizen. was turned over to the FBI.

Similarly, the Hanssen case is the first in which Washington is seeking to execute someone accused of espionage since they killed Ethel and Julius Rosenberg in 1953 during the antilabor witch-hunt.

There should be no mistake about who is the ultimate target of this campaign for the death penalty in the name of fighting terrorism and spying. It is workers and farmers--and anyone else who stands up to the assault by the employers and the billionaires’ government. The moves by the U.S. rulers to undercut democratic rights and to rely more and more on their cops, courts, prisons, and executions--both official and on the street--are in anticipation of the increasing resistance by workers and farmers in this country. The bosses are preparing to use rougher methods to keep our class in line. In an extension of this offensive at home, they are also part of Washington’s efforts to assert their military might to defend their imperialist interests around the world.

The stance of the labor movement must be: Stop the executions! Abolish the death penalty!
 
 
Related article:
‘Terrorism,’ ‘espionage’ used to justify death penalty  
 
 
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