Was Adolf Eichmann a Terrorist?

(Bumped up from Friday evening.)

Does it matter what we call someone? Is terminology essential for taking action against someone responsible for a monstrous crime? I confess I’m amused by the furor over whether to label Major Nidal Hasan a “terrorist.” But so what? If call him a terrorist does that fast track him to a court martial? The answer is no. If you call him a “terrorist” does that ensure he is executed for his crimes? No.

The key issue with respect to Hasan was whether or not he was acting on behalf of someone else per their instructions. While Hasan certainly tried to reach out to folks that have links back to Al Qaeda or Al Qaeda sympathizers, there is no evidence that he was a mole and carried out a secret plot. We also have strong circumstantial evidence that he was unfit for duty as a U.S. military officer and instead of being disciplined was passed along and allowed to become a threat.

News today that the Obama Administration is going to try the 9-11 plotters and other Al Qaeda operatives in a civilian trial in New York City has again awakened the red herring about “fighting terrorism as a war.” Which then leads to my original question, was Adolf Eichmann a terrorist?

Eichmann, for the culturally ignorant, was the mastermind of the Final Solution that helped exterminate 6 million Jews:

Reinhard Heydrich disclosed to Eichmann in autumn 1941 that all the Jews in German-controlled Europe were to be exterminated.[13] In 1942, Heydrich ordered Eichmann to attend the Wannsee Conference as recording secretary, where Germany’s anti-Semitic measures were set down into an official policy of genocide. Eichmann was given the position of Transportation Administrator of the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question”, which put him in charge of all the trains which would carry Jews to the death camps in the territory of occupied Poland.

In 1944, he was sent to Hungary after Germany had occupied that country in fear of a Soviet invasion. Eichmann at once went to work deporting Jews, sending 430,000 Hungarians to their deaths in the gas chambers.

By 1945, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler had ordered Jewish extermination to be halted and evidence of the Final Solution to be destroyed. Eichmann was appalled by Himmler’s turnabout, and continued his work in Hungary against official orders. Eichmann was also working to avoid being called up in the last ditch German military effort, since a year before he had been commissioned as a Reserve Untersturmführer in the Waffen-SS and was now being ordered to active combat duty.

Eichmann fled Hungary in 1945 as the Soviets entered, and he returned to Austria, where he met up with his old friend Ernst Kaltenbrunner. Kaltenbrunner, however, refused to associate with Eichmann since Eichmann’s duties as an extermination administrator had left him a marked man by the Allies.

While Eichmann certainly inflicted terror on his victims, both directly and indirectly, he was not a terrorist. He was military officer and was fighting in a war. However, when it came time to bring him to justice it was not through a “war or terror.” Israel (correctly so in my view) took matters into its own hands and snatched him from Argentina and took him to Israel for trial:

In 1959, Mossad was informed that Eichmann was in Buenos Aires under the name Ricardo Klement (Clement) and began an effort to locate his exact whereabouts.[21] Through relentless surveillance, it was concluded that Ricardo Klement was, in fact, Adolf Eichmann. The Israeli government then approved an operation to capture Eichmann and bring him to Jerusalem for trial as a war criminal. The Mossad agents continued their surveillance of Eichmann through the first months of 1960 until it was judged safe to take him down, even watching as he delivered flowers to his wife on their 25th wedding anniversary on March 21.

Eichmann was captured by a team of Mossad and Shabak agents in a suburb of Buenos Aires on May 11, 1960, as part of a covert operation.[22] The Mossad agents had arrived in Buenos Aires in April 1960 after Eichmann’s identity was confirmed. After observing Eichmann for an extensive period of time, a team of Mossad agents waited for him as he arrived home from his work as foreman at a Mercedes Benz factory. One kept lookout waiting for his bus to arrive, while two agents pretended to be fixing a broken down car. An unconfirmed fourth would ride on the bus to make sure he would leave. Once Eichmann alighted and began walking the short distance to his home, he was asked by the agent at the car, Zvi Aharoni, for a cigarette. When Eichmann reached in his pocket he was set upon by the two by the car. Eichmann fought but team member Peter Malkin, a Polish Jew and a black belt in karate, knocked Eichmann unconscious with a strike to the back of his neck and bundled him into the car and took him to the safe house.

There a preliminary interrogation was conducted and it was proved that Klement (Clement) was undoubtedly the Nazi Eichmann.[21] The agents kept him in a safe house until they judged that he could be taken to Israel without being detected by Argentine authorities; then smuggled him out of Argentina on board an El Al Bristol Britannia flight from Argentina to Dakar and then to Israel on May 21, 1960, heavily sedated and disguised, like the agents, in the uniform of the El Al crew.[23]

Israel demonstrated that a genuine monster could be brought to justice using the law rather than force. I consider this one of Israel’s finest moments. David Ben Gurion and his Government demonstrated that they could defeat a monster without having to become monsters.

The Bush Administration brought us the nonsense that we must fight terrorism as a war. This still makes no sense because terrorism is a tactic, it is not a strategic organization. This does not mean therefore that we use only “law enforcement” means against people who engage in terrorism. Hell, no. If we can located a terrorist cell and kill them I think that is swell. But I know firsthand from working with the military force that has the capture/kill mission for terrorists that they rarely get the opportunity. The folks who engage in terrorism tend to hang out in groups and small cells that are not easily attacked with military force. More often than not we can get these people thru intelligence or law enforcement operations.

So what do we do about Khalid Sheik Muhammed and the others coming out of Gitmo? I agree with Rudy Guiliani. These individuals are defacto combatants and should be tried in a military tribunal. They are not common criminals and should not be tried in a civilian court.

UPDATE: Here’s Rudy’s comments today:

Unfortunately, as with so many other aspects of the Obama administration, this is a plan not fully thought through.

These are some initial thoughts. Chew away.