Barr: To some extent, but the reaction generally has been positive. Most people, when they stop to think about it, realize that there is a great commonality of interest between liberals and conservatives on these issues.
Reason: You started out sympathetic to civil libertarian concerns about trying terrorists before military tribunals, but ended up endorsing the idea. What changed your mind?
Barr: The administration, in that instance, seemed to listen to a number of the criticisms that we made. It made some fairly substantial changes to the way they were going to carry out the tribunals.
There are two concerns that I continue to have. One is that the administration can change its mind at any time. You can't say, "Hey, this is a great idea," and just walk away from it. You've got to monitor it and make sure nobody backslides. The second is that I don't think we've seen a consistent standard exercised by the administration in deciding when to use military tribunals. That's bothersome.
If you use it in an appropriate setting -- a military setting, in the context of an active conflict -- and you have an enemy combatant, a military tribunal with its accelerated procedures lends itself to a wartime scenario. But the government really needs to have an articulated, consistent standard. You have John Walker Lindh, who I consider to be a poster boy for a military tribunal proceeding, tried in our civilian courts. And then you have this other fella, Jose Padilla, being tried in a military tribunal. I think his situation is much more appropriately handled in the civilian courts.
And then you have the Zacarias Moussaui case, where because the government doesn't seem to be getting its way with regard to access to witnesses by the defendant, they indicate, "Well, if we don't get our way, we'll just go ahead and try him in a military tribunal." I don't think that's appropriate.
Reason: In another one of your Creative Loafing columns, you wrote that neoconservatives want to "rely on the raw and aggressive use of military power to a unique degree." Where have they called for using military power where you'd prefer not to use force?
Barr: One place where this already seems to be coming back to haunt us is the Israeli call -- temporarily suspended, but it could be resurrected -- to go after Arafat and take him out, to kill him. It's somewhat inconsistent for us to counsel the Israelis not to do that when that's precisely the tack we seem to take in Iraq. This seems to open, to some extent, perhaps, a can of worms -- where other nations will take the same standard and we might not like it.
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