Crooks, Criminals, and the Pursuit of Justice
And how likely is it that such a witness will emerge? Not very likely unless the US uses its one method that always makes the bad guys talk: a promise to lessen a particular set of charges in exchange for information. Of course in this situation that would be a very wrong tactic, but if John Walker Lindh is allowed to leave the court as a free man, it will be a victory for Al-Qaeda, and Mr. Lindh will likely be on the next flight to Teheran or Yemen.
And Mr. Milosevic? If he has nothing more substantive to say for himself than "I really shouldn't be here, and you didn't follow the rules when you arrested me", well, that hardly counts as answering the charges against him. Like most dictators, Mr. Milosevic seems quite enamored by the sound of his own bland voice. His diatribe against the tribunal has extended to assertions that he was engaged in a war against the terrorists of NATO forces. He even advised the tribunal that he intends to ask Bill Clinton and Tony Blair to testify before the tribunal. And Mr. Milosevic wants the judges to believe he is of sound mind? With defendants like Mr. Milosevic, who needs prosecutors?
Never mind that his rambling makes no sense. For example, in his opening statement to the tribunal, on the one side he said he would prefer to wait until the next day to deliver his statement because he did not want to be interrupted, but then he immediately proceeded to make a statement to the court without notifying the tribunal that was what he meant to do. He then deliberately ignored the comments of the Chief Judge who intended to bring the dictator back to order. If judicial findings depended on presentation, Mr. Milosevic severely harmed his case.
By contrast, Mr. Lindh has not challenged the authority of the US federal courts to hear his case. There surrounded by his lawyers, he said as little as possible during the preliminary proceedings and tried to affirm his innocence.
The time required for the entire process of these two trials will be at least a year. The trial of Mr. Milosevic will probably require two years. Mr. Milosevic had been on the list of known and sought war criminals for many years at the time of his arrest in April 2001. During that time the prosecution should have had nore than
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