"The gratuitous comments by the attorney general did not enhance public safety, or provide any other special public benefit," Kopel wrote. Ashcroft's remarks, he added, "were inappropriate" and "might unintentionally imperil successful prosecutions."

Kopel was responding to a February 5 press conference by Ashcroft announcing the indictment of Lindh by a federal grand jury. Walker Lindh, a U.S. citizen, was captured in Afghanistan last year as Washington conducted its bombing raids and other military operations there.

Ashcroft said the grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia filed a 10-count indictment against Lindh that included "conspiracy to murder U.S. citizens" and "providing material support and resources to terrorist organizations." Ashcroft claimed that the charges were based "in part on voluntary statements" made by Lindh, who faces multiple life sentences if found guilty and convicted.

"Americans who love their country do not dedicate themselves to killing Americans," said Ashcroft. Thus, he said, the grand jury indictments were filed to "secure justice for the nation that John Walker Lindh betrayed and they will uphold the values that he dedicated himself to destroy."

The head of the Justice Department said the "United States is a country that cherishes religious tolerance, political democracy, and equality between men and women. By his own account, John Walker Lindh allied himself with terrorists who reject these values."

Ashcroft's "plainly negative statements about Lindh's character" appear to be a breach of Virginia's rules of legal ethics, said Kopel. "Legal ethics rules have long forbidden prosecutors and defense attorneys to try their cases in public."

He pointed to a section of "Virginia's Rules of Professional Conduct" which states: "A lawyer participating in or associated with the investigation or the prosecution of a criminal matter that may be tried by a jury shall not make or participate in making an extrajudicial statement that a reasonable person would expect to be disseminated by means of public communication that the lawyer knows, or should know, will have a substantial likelihood of interfering with the fairness of the trial by a jury."

Kopel said that Ashcroft's "observations about Lindh's character" also deviated from guidelines of the Justice Department's Code of Federal Regulations that supposedly prohibit "subjective observations."

Kopel noted that those involved with the prosecution cannot publicly reveal the contents of any confession or statement by the defendant, another rule apparently violated by Ashcroft. Even though some counts of the indictment could be based on a CNN interview given by Lindh, evidence that he decided to "dedicate" himself to "killing Americans" is not among them.

The attorney general's defiance of these guidelines as well as Virginia's rules of legal ethics "gives Lindh's attorney a plausible basis for arguing that Ashcroft's comments deprived Lindh of the possibility of a fair trial," said Kopel. "Lindh's attorney now has a basis for a new argument with a non-trivial chance of success."

Kopel noted that the U.S. Congress enacted legislation in 1999 that bound federal attorneys to state rules of legal ethics. Unsuccessful attempts were made to repeal this statute during the passage of the USA Patriot Act signed into law by Bush October 26. Under the guise of fighting "terrorism," that bipartisan measure gave wider latitude to the FBI and other political police agencies to conduct spying and disruption operations against individuals and voluntary associations, carry out arbitrary searches and seizures in private homes and businesses, and jail immigrants indefinitely with virtually no charges.  
 
"Urban warfare" exercises
As Washington prepares the trial of John Walker Lindh to bolster its antiterror campaign in the assault on workers' rights, the U.S. military has also begun conducting "urban warfare" exercises "aimed at improving tactics in the U.S. war on terrorism," according to a Reuters dispatch. About 300 Marines practiced "reconnaissance and house and vehicle searches" in downtown North Little Rock, Arkansas, in February. The war games took place in nearby neighborhoods, on key bridges, and at a nuclear power plant. The soldiers hunted for "mock combatants" and practiced "interrogation techniques."

Jenny Holbert, a Marine Corps public affairs officer in Quantico, Virginia, said, "It's the first time we've done such training in real neighborhoods, with the tempo of a city--people walking dogs, going about their lives."

The military maneuver, organized by the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, also included cops, city workers, and officials.

A "mock commando raid" took place February 20 in Phoenix Site, Nevada, where U.S. senator Harry Reid proposes to set up a "National Training Center for Combating Terrorism." The military demonstration involved a SWAT team that supposedly practiced securing a nuclear processing plant, saving hostages, driving "Al Qaeda intruders" off, and dismantling a "crude atomic device."

The site is one of several around the country under survey by Thomas Ridge, director of "homeland security," as potential military training grounds for counterterrorism. According to the New York Times other sites being considered for "counterterrorism training," include one in Cincinnati, where Ridge spent a morning reviewing a demonstration by an "urban assault team."

Last April working people and youth in Cincinnati's Black community, along with other opponents of police brutality and racism, held demonstrations on a nearly daily basis for more than a week to protest the cop killing of 19-year-old Timothy Thomas. The mayor declared a state of emergency and instituted a curfew as more than 850 people were arrested. He also threatened to call the Ohio National Guard and hinted at bringing in tanks to suppress the protests.

One military exercise in North Carolina didn't end up quite as planned. One Special Forces soldier was killed and another severely wounded at the end of February after the two were stopped by a deputy sheriff who later said they appeared suspicious riding around in an unmarked pickup truck. The soldiers, wearing civilian clothes, apparently thought the cop was part of the drill, and engaged him. Acting like a cop, the deputy sheriff unloaded his pistol at the two. The incident occurred just outside Fort Bragg.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home