"The Value Of A Single Human Being"

Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen Is Reminded By A Movie That Certain Values Should Take Precedence

(CBS)  Attorney Andrew Cohen analyzes legal issues for CBS News and CBSNews.com.

---

Sometimes you find wisdom, or even just a welcomed new expression of an old, good idea, in the strangest places.

Last Friday night, one of the old-time movie channels offered up "Judgment at Nuremberg," the weighty 1961 movie about the famous Nazi war crimes tribunal. I began watching because of the movie's cast: Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Montgomery Clift, Marlene Dietrich and Maximillian Schell. William Shatner played a young officer. Werner Klemperer, later Col. Klink from "Hogan's Heroes," played an evil villain.

Who could resist?

But I continued watching, hour after hour, because of the movie's message. It is resonant and relevant nearly a half century later, and perfectly befitting a week that saw not one but two federal appeals courts wrestle with some of the most contentious legal issues to arise out of the terror attacks upon America.

The film is about good judgment and bad judgment, evil choices and noble ones, and how a society reacts, or ought to anyway, to times of great stress. It ought to be required viewing for every government lawyer and policymaker as well as every federal judge who has to decide how our country will respond to the war on terrorism.

Written by screenwriter Abby Mann, here is what Spencer Tracy, who played the chief judge of the tribunal, says at the end of the movie: "There are those in our own country, too, who today speak of the 'protection of country' — of 'survival.' A decision must be made in the life of every nation at the very moment when the grasp of the enemy is at its throat. Then, it seems, that the only way to survive is to use the means of the enemy, to rest survival upon what is expedient — to look the other way.

"Well, the answer to that is 'survival as what?' A country isn't a rock," Tracy continued as the camera panned from his craggy face to the other characters within the courtroom. "It's not an extension of one's self. It's what it stands for. It's what it stands for when standing for something is the most difficult! Before the people of the world, let it now be noted that here, in our decision, this is what we stand for: justice, truth and the value of a single human being."

A single human being like Ali Saleh Kalah al-Marri, whose lawyers were in federal court in Richmond, Va., last Thursday trying to convince the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that al-Marri, like the "enemy combatants" before him, has gotten a raw deal from the government.

Al-Marri was born in Qatar and was living legally in the United States on a student visa on Sept. 11, 2001. At first, he was arrested and charged with fraud. Then, two years later, in 2003, he was designated by President Bush as a combatant and locked in a military brig, where he remains to this day. His lawyers say this is a mistake that has cost the man four years of his life.

Government attorneys, on the other hand, told the 4th Circuit that they believe al-Marri helped the 9/11 planners and intended to participate in some sort of subsequent chemical attack.

These are the same government lawyers who initially said that Enemy Combatant No. 1, Yaser Esam Hamdi, was such a threat to national security that he could not even talk to his attorneys — until the feds suddenly set him free.

This is the same government that initially said that Enemy Combatant No. 2, Jose Padilla, was a "dirty bomb" plotter bent upon exploding a radiological bomb — until he quite obviously wasn't and now stands as a civilian defendant in a shaky terror conspiracy case in Florida.

Or a single human being like Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen who was flying home from a vacation in 2002 when he was detained in New York and then deported by U.S. officials to Syria, where he was tortured.

Both the Canadian and U.S. governments were complicit in the "extraordinary rendition" designed to allow for the kind of interrogation that is not permitted by Canadian or American law. Canada has since apologized to Arar for the treatment he received. Our government has not. In fact, Arar is inexplicably still on our "no-fly" list, a status for which Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said this past week he would like an explanation.

Or a single human being such as Christopher Hitchens, the acidic journalist whose polemics I often despise. But his role as one of the named plaintiffs in the American Civil Liberties Union's landmark domestic surveillance case against the National Security Agency is a genuinely heroic one.

Last Wednesday, a panel of three judges on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard government lawyers tell them that this challenge to the NSA's warrantless spy program is moot and should be dismissed, because the White House last month decided to cut an oversight deal with the super-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court.

Please let me be absolutely clear. I am not in any way comparing the legal positions our government has taken in the war against terrorism with the tyranny of Nazi rule. I am trying only to make the larger point (or the smaller point, depending upon your point of view).

In the movie, Tracy bravely and doggedly affirmed that he and America would stand up for each of the victims of Nazi tyranny, even if the harsh sentences imposed against the defendants were unpopular in Germany and thus a boon to the Soviets during the depths of the Cold War. Tracy's judgment, and therefore the judgment of the nation, was that we could and would do the moral thing, even if it weren't the most popular or politically expedient thing.

In real life, all of us will be judged by our grandchildren based upon how able and willing we are to show the world and our enemies that we will, in Tracy's words, "not employ the means of the enemy" and that truth and justice and fairness still have a treasured and preeminent role in this time of terror.

That test began on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. It roiled to the surface this past week, and it's a challenge will be with us for a long, long time to come.

[Jasonian18]

oh and ps republicans are the only ones hwho can protect you the democratic clinton administration did nothing go figure and now the democrats want us to give up so that all these lives would have died in vain oh great and they want us to sit back at home and wait and say hello radical muslim please come kill me ill leave the door unlocks in fact here are the plains please stage another 9/11!!!

[Jasonian18]

ive got news for you muslims and commys have always hated us and will always hate us for what we stand for capitalism and freedom freedom of religion and gender equallity i don't know if you know this ior not but there was a second manifesto written similar to das capital written by hitler hidden away only 3 ever made which dicusses his strategies and ideas for destroying america he had already stages a full attack and people like the neo nazis still follow those ideas. also even further then that the muslim radical s not even only muslium radicals also normal muslims are taught that all other religions and all ofther countries that don't accept islam are to be killed and destroyed i have news for you the bush administration did nothing but start qwelling the already existent jihad / "holy war" which is already been in motion before the bush administration clinton knew about it guess what he did nothing guess what happend 9/11 go figure now President bush is trying to prevent something you blame him for never trying to stop and figure this out he doens't listen because he still hears the cries of the people who died those voices which we nol longer hear because of our ignorance i got news for you those voices are still alive in his head because of what we are up against as a nation. so don't even give me that oh its this administration crud i bet you were one of the protestors saying that we should go to war to protect ourselves from another attack.

[amoginesq]

The question isn't who is or isn't a "Nazi" or more concrned about "security." It is how much individual freedoms are we willing to sacrifice in the name of "security?" Is the Bill of Rights a list of our core beliefs to which other laws must conform or merely outdated protections which other laws i.e. Patriot Act, can alter or supercede? Also who decides this question- the executive, the Congress or the Judiciary?
The movie illustrates how basically decent men, the judges on trial, can by ignoring the law in the name of the "greater good" enable others to commit the most horrendous crimes. When judges are idealogues rather than jurists, they betray both the law and their country and in this movie, humanity.

[Jasonian18]

our current administration is doing everything in its power to help us there are sections of our government i do agree that are dirty but they have nothing to do with the administration they have been in place for that past few years (even before Bu$h's presidency) its just this is the most televised war ever occuring in the history of the US the atrocities that have "never happened before" is false for example Vietnam there were mass murders of entire villages according to generals orders taken but it wasnt televised we find out about them later. as for now these are just been televised and i would rather be safe then sorry the government was supposed to protect the whole nation even if at the expense of one human even if we have a value to one human life there is more value in hundreds not to mention how dare any of you non-Christians profess to have any value for human life other then your own euthenizing of animals occur all the time so there isn't a difference from euthenizing an animal to euthenizing a relative of the animal (ie homosapiens) that is humans people according to evolution we are no better then animals and that is a fact of evolution so you can't put value on human life you can only put value on animal life you stupid twofaced evolutionists have forked toungues learn to speak straight and tell the society everything you know

[gossimer]

lochlan, I wish I could give you a better answer. The truth is, our government, or at least the current administration in charge, will stop at nothing to do WHATEVER they want to do, anywhere they want to do it! And there are more people that want to simply sit idly by and not question anything! Not their motives, their actions, not ANYTHING!

Perhaps they're content to bury their heads in the sand, or they figure they are powerless to do anything about it; or worse, they are backers and supporters of anything "their" political group wants to do, no matter what the costs in lives and taxpayers money!

I can tell you one thing, though. If our founding fathers were alive today, they would be the FIRST to insist on Impeachment proceedings IMMEDIATELY! And apologize to the ENTIRE world for Bush's corrupt and illegal use of power, and that of his entire regime!

Iran,North Korea, and China better watch out! The entire world should fully realize that Bush and his arrogant truthless cronies CANNOT be trusted! As should the rest of the world in general, especially when it comes to protecting our earth and its environment! America is worst victim of all!

We're in the most dangerous position we've EVER been in, regarding the hate, fear, and animosity directed to all Americans, thanks to Bush's actions! Our very SOUL as a country is being corrupted and destroyed from within by our own government and the intrusive, meddling actions of the "Religious 'WRONG'"!

[lochlan-2009]

I knew the reason they stated in the beginning. I guess I was expecting them to have an alternative excuse for invading a country!!!, killing 3,000+ soldiers and hundreds of thousands of civilians!!!!, costing the American economy hundreds of billions!!!, handing the countries leader over to his enemies for execution after running him through a joke of a trial that I don't think fooled one person anywhere! Yet after it has been proven that there was never any "weapons of mass destruction" and it was all just a lie, and even with the Libby trial now which proves Cheney and company were behind revealing that agent that exposed the yellowcake lie, I never hear anyone tell me why we just invaded a country for, what seems to me, no reason what so ever. What would we Americans think if the shoe was on the other foot? Imagine Saddam doing to our country what we just did to his. But the big question is why aren't the media asking, why hasn't the president given a reason for invading a completly innocent country? Is the world just going to stand by as we invade and plunder, as in Iraq's case, countries that have done nothing wrong.

[gossimer]

...CONT.
Also, Bush is a member of the secret society, "Skull and Bones", who have ALWAYS had their own personal agendas! Our world is "controlled" by such groups within groups! They want something, they will do WHATEVER it takes to get it! Such as raise/lower prices, wage wars, kill/control leaders and foreign dignitaries, their objectives are endless, as are the lengths and means in which they will go to achieving them. Their ONLY allegiance is to each other and their organization, anything and EVERYTHING is secondary to this, regardless of any oath they "seemingly" take, regardless of what that might be, even the Oath of Office!

Rafterman1 is absolutely correct, here; golfkt is just typical of Right-wing Republicans, always arguing their same - anal retentive - lines, "Liberal this, liberal that", like being LIBERAL is a "bad thing!" When, in fact, quite the contrary is true!

[gossimer]

First of all, in response to lochlan's question, "Can anyone tell me the reason we invaded Iraq?(I mean the actual reason that the White House states as the reason)."

The "actual reason" as stated by the White House, and the TRUE reason are not the same! The White House stated they had "evidence" of WMDs stockpiled and hidden througout Iraq, and that Saddam was pursuing efforts to obtain materials for radiological weapons, "yellow cake" from Africa, possessing the "Aluminum tubing", etc. NONE of which has been found OR proven, to this day!

No, the TRUE reason Bush wanted this war is multifarious, primarily his personal hatred of Saddam. Saddam had NEVER had anything to do with the events of 9/11. PERIOD!

If Bush had focused on Usama bin Laden, who personally ACKNOWLEDGED and pushed for the attacks, and his army of followers, the Taliban. Our entire planet might be a whole lot safer today. However, Bush didn't. He wanted Saddam and he USED 9/11 to justify his vengeful bloodthirst for personal vengeance. Also, to this day there is overwhelming evidence that the death and destruction of 9/11 WAS indeed a government "conspiracy", which our government is SO WELL practiced in! I'll not debate this fact here, as there are those who will quite simply refuse to believe it, however, the proof is available for anyone willing to look, it's NOT hidden! CONT...

[lochlan-2009]

No one seems to know why we invaded Iraq. They all give their opinion, but no one knows the actual reason. Why?

[rafterman1]

Oops, one minor correction. Drexler formed the German Works Party, which became the National Socialists after Hitler joined later in 1919.