Head Pentagon Lawyer Compared 19th Century Native American Resistance to Al-Qaeda
Leaders of the Seminole Indians have demanded a personal apology from President Barack Obama after military lawyers involved in tribunals for Guantánamo detainees compared the actions of the Florida tribe’s ancestors to al-Qaeda.
In 1818, General Andrew Jackson led a U.S. military invasion of Florida, then controlled by Spain, to stop black slaves from escaping into the territory. Jackson wound up putting on trial (and executing) two British merchants, Robert Ambrister and Alexander Arbuthnot, for aiding the Seminoles, who resisted the American incursion. That military tribunal eventually became the legal source for authorizing the 21st century Guantánamo war court to try suspected terrorists.
In a legal brief filed in support of the conviction of Ali Hamza al Bahlul, who served as media secretary to Osama bin Laden, Defense Department General Counsel Jeh C. Johnson wrote: “Not only was the Seminole belligerency unlawful, but, much like modern-day al Qaeda, the very way in which the Seminoles waged war against U.S. targets itself violate the customs and usages of war.”
Seminole Chairman Mitchell Cypress, who accused the military lawyers of a “backward dive into racist, revisionist history,” wrote to Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates demanding personal apologies for Johnson’s analogy. So far only Johnson has publicly apologized for his words.
http://www.allgov.com/Controversies/ViewNews/Head_Pentagon_Lawyer_Compared_19th_Century_Native_American_Resistance_to_Al_Qaeda_110413