A War Criminal and A Moron: Meet Allen West

I'd have a lot more respect for the Tea Party movement if two things were to occur. First, I'd like it if they had an economic platform wasn't as fantasy-based as the Obama administration's. You will not balance the budget by keeping ginormous, ineffective tax cuts and cutting only the spending that you find personally distasteful, okay? Math simply doesn't work that way.

Second, it would be fantastic if they stopped trying to elevate sociopathic idiots like Allen West to high government office. It only makes everybody look silly. Look, I'm as thrilled as anybody that West managed to move on from his career in Kid n' Play, but it used to be that government service had higher qualifications than simply being an inept bookend to Michael Steele.

The alleged "right" of the Republican Party loves Congressman-elect West for one reason, and one reason alone: He's a fucking war criminal.

While serving in Taji, Iraq on August 20, 2003, West was in charge of an interrogation of a civilian Iraqi police officer who was suspected of having pertinent information regarding attacks on American soldiers in the area. Interrogators had learned that the detainee had information about a planned ambush. When the interrogators were unable to extract the information from the detainee, West was asked to assist with the interrogation. When the detainee continued to withhold information, West was accused of firing his pistol past the detainee's head, frightening the detainee into revealing the requested information. According to West's sworn statement, the detainee informed West that:

“ [The attack] was to occur Friday morning in Saba al Boor vicinity of the police station by positioned snipers supposedly being brought in from Fallujah. [The detainee] was to ID my vehicle and myself for these rooftop firers. We took this information and the following day established flask CPs and used AH-64s overhead. There was no attack and no further attacks have emanated from the town since the apprehension of [the detainee] and his named associates. ”

At least one man was apprehended as a result of the information obtained through the detainee's interrogation. His home was searched, but no plans for attacks on Americans or weapons were found. West testified that he did not know whether "any corroboration" of a plot was ever found, adding: "At the time I had to base my decision on the intelligence I received. It's possible that I was wrong about [the detainee,] Mr. Hamoodi."

West, who at the time was just short of having 22 years of service, was charged with violating articles 128 (assault) and 134 (general article) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. West was processed through an Article 32 hearing in November 2003, where he admitted wrongdoing, was fined $5,000 . He then submitted his retirement paperwork and was allowed to retire with full benefits in the summer of 2004.

That's an astonishing example of undercharging by military prosecutors. At best, Lieutenant Colonel West threatened a prisoner with death. At worst, he conducted a mock execution. Both of those things are specifically classified as war crimes under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and international law. Christ, Americans still bitch about those things being done to them by the Chinese and North Koreans in the 1950s.

You can't even defend West with the ridiculous "unlawful combatant" argument, since A) West wasn't in a lawful position to make such a designation; B) Mistreatment of those so designated is carried out by the CIA, and not the uniform military; and C) It's illegal under UCMJ. Oh, and D) There's absolutely no evidence that the Iraqi cop was guilty of anything, and even West concedes the possibility that he "was wrong about [the detainee,] Mr. Hamoodi."

Yes, I know that Glenn Beck tells the story differently, but Glenn Beck is little more than Randy Quaid with a slightly better haircut. The fact is that under any reasonable legal standard, Lieutenant Colonel West should be spending the rest of his life in the brig at Leavenworth or shipped to the goddamned Hague. Instead, he's going to Congress, which I hope most Americans remember the next time they get all outraged about some African or Southeast Asian shithole putting a known torturer into political office.

On the other hand, electing West to Congress is a boon to me, if only because he'll splatter the Capitol with so much stupid that I won't be able to resist writing about it. He hasn't even taken his oath of office yet, and he's already started. He appears to be advocating the censorship of American news outlets.

There are different means by which you can be attacked. I mean it doesnt have to be a bomb or an airplane flying into a building. It doesn’t have to be a shooting. It can be through cyber attacks, it could be through leaking of very sensitive classified information. Regardless of whether you think it causes any harm, the fact that here is an individual that is not an American citizen first and foremost, for whatever reason gotten his hands on classified American material and put it out there in the public domain. And I think that we also should be censoring the American news agencies which enabled him to do this and also supported him and applauding him for the efforts. So that’s kind of aiding and abetting of a serious crime.

Actually, West is wrong on almost every count, but that's not unusual for Republicans these days. Right off the top, Bradley Manning almost certainly won't be charged with treason. The Constitution makes such a prosecution almost impossible. Allen West can't even get the most basic facts about this right.

What he's arguing for is legally known as "prior restraint", and that was specifically prohibited by the Supreme Court in New York Times Co v. United States, more commonly known as the Pentagon Papers case. Then there's the small matter of the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of the press. You'd think that as someone who spent 22 years protecting the Constitution, he would've read at least that far into it.

There's virtually no binding legal precedent for the fantasies Teapublicans like Allen West want to pursue. For the most part, they're relying on the Section 793 of Espionage Act of 1917, vast parts of which were gutted by rulings like New York Times Co. More interestingly, for people who follow the Glenn Beck - Cleon Skousen line of despising Woodrow Wilson so uniformly, they're leaning awfully heavily on his most lasting legacy, the Espionage Act.

But if prior restraint can't legally happen, West wants the government to censor the press and Internet, preferably by cyber attack. That's fascinating insofar as people like him have spent the last six months relentlessly bitching about net neutrality, which they say will ... establish government censorship on the Internet.

Look, I long ago gave up on the idea of Republicans doing the right - or even the conservative - thing. But I can expect them to follow the law as the law is actually written. If they're so unhappy with the law, they are free to try to change it. But there's no "unless there's a war" clause in the Bill of Rights, and these assholes should stop pretending that there is.