"In Time of War is a thrilling account of a strange, important episode in World War II. the Nazi saboteur case is a blot on our law, and is being used by the Bush Administration now to defend its attacks on Civil Liberties. Pierce O'Donnell has somehow uncovered its secrets—the lies of J. Edgar Hoover, the cynicism of Franklin Roosevelt and Supreme Court justices, the courage of one Army colonel."

-Anthony Lewis (Gideon's Trumpet)
Pulitzer Prize Winner and New York Times Columnist

 

"In Time of War is a riveting account of a minor but intriguing footnote to World War II. More importantly, it is a blazing red flag of caution to any government hell-bent on tampering with constitutional rights in a time of crisis. "
-John Grisham
 

"A masterful account of how the government and those we rely on to preserve our liberties can fail in moments of crisis. In Time of War makes us think about how we can fight the 'War on Terrorism' without committing the mistakes of the past. A must read for everyone concerned about preserving our cherished civil liberties in this time of national emergency. This is history that speaks to us today."

-Arthur R. Miller
Bruce Bromly Professor of Law, Harvard Law School.

 

"In Time of War tells a chillingly true story of foreign terrorists who reached American soil almost 60 years before 9/11 and failed in their mission purely by chance. What is chilling about the story, however, is not the close call with terrorism, but the fully accomplished scheme by which American leadership sacrificed our most cherished civil liberties in the name of national security. It is a story worth remembering."

-Barry Richard
Counsel for President George W. Bush, Bush v. Gore

 

"The frenzied appeals by the U.S. government to curb civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism give this careful study an urgent importance. This thoughtful analysis reviews the numerous mistakes which the United States government has made in the past when war has clouded America's sense of the preciousness and the fragility of the constitutional rights of all citizens."

"As a member of the presidential commission that won twenty thousand dollars for each of the one hundred twenty thousand Japanese internees in World War II, I highly recommend Pierce O'Donnell's timely book. It is a compelling and prophetic message which deserves the careful attention of every American."

-Rev. Robert F. Drinan, S.J.
Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center

 

"In Time of War is a real page turner—a compelling drama about the trial and execution of German saboteurs in 1942 set against the backdrop of the internment of 117,000 loyal Japanese-Americans and the suspension of the African-American civil rights agenda. Pierce O'Donnell is a master storyteller who vividly brings to life the trying times of World War II and a nation gripped by fear of invasion and sabotage and the tough choices that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had to make between enhancing national security and honoring the Constitution. For the first time, O'Donnell recounts the remarkable story of U.S. Army Colonel Kenneth Royall—the heroic defense counsel who defies his Commander-in-Chief and champions his doomed Nazi clients' cause. In our own troubled age, In Time of War is a cautionary tale about protecting civil liberties in wartime."

-Johnnie Cochran

 

"Reads like a spy novel, only it's all true. O'Donnell's fast-paced account lifts the lid on one of the most secret trials in American history, and offers a striking cautionary tale for the war on terrorism."

-David Cole
Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center and
Author of Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional
Freedoms in the War on Terrorism

 

"In times of war we struggle to reconcile our instinct for self preservation and our desire for victory with the need to preserve the values that make our society exceptional and worthy of great sacrifice in its defense. Pierce O'Donnell has given us a fascinating story that throws that struggle into bold relief. O'Donnell is a great storyteller, but this book represents much more than fascinating story well told. In Time of War makes us think about important issues our nation faces as we engage in a war against those who are determined to commit mass murder against us. O'Donnell reminds us that if we wage that war without regard to the values that define our society, the terrorists will have won already"

-Colonel H.R. McMaster
and author of Dereliction of Duty

 
"One of the America's leading trial lawyers, Pierce O'Donnell turns back the pages of history to a forgotten episode in World War II, called the German Saboteur Case, in a brilliantly written new book titled 'In Time of War' "
-Michael Levine
My Town Section, Entertainment Today, March 25, 2005
 
"Consider a mid-twentieth century capital trial, in which there is no indictment, no trial by peers, no rules of evidence, and no appeal. Add that the statements of each defendant, obtained in the absence of counsel, are admitted against all co-defendants; that the triers of fact are hand-picked by the prosecutor's boss; and that all the proceedings are secret. Hardly, you say, a model of which our judicial system should be proud? Yet, this describes Ex Parte Quirin, the case of the World War II German saboteurs, the precedent most often cited by proponents of the current administration's military tribunals for trials of "unlawful combatants." Pierce O'Donnell, a trial lawyer and partner in a Los Angeles firm, has written a meticulously-detailed and highly readable account of the case, from the training of the saboteurs who were landed by submarine on Long Island and in Florida, through the trial, the extraordinary Supreme Court session, and the execution of six of the eight defendants. A concluding section brings the narrative down to the present, and includes sharp comparisons with the Supreme Court's 2004 trilogy of decisions in Rasul, Hamdi and Padilla. Drawing on sources including the now-declassified trial transcript, the memoirs of the chief defense and prosecution counsel, and a work by one of the two defendants whose sentences were commuted by President Truman, O'Donnell's book is part history and part editorial, characterizing the trial as a "Kangaroo Court," and going so far as to say "the fix was in" at the Supreme Court. But it is hard to fault his conclusion when there is strong evidence that sitting Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter advised President Roosevelt how to structure the trial to avoid Constitutional difficulties; that the FBI broke its promise of a pardon to the one defendant who had turned himself in and revealed all the details of the plot, enabling the capture of the others; and that Roosevelt made known to the chief prosecutor, Attorney General Francis Biddle, and through him to the tribunal, that he expected death sentences for all the defendants. Indeed, memos of Supreme Court justices reveal that they feared Roosevelt would have had the defendants executed regardless of the Court's decision. O'Donnell's narrative is enlivened by well-drawn descriptions of the major participants, and by references to the assortment of minor players who later gained repute, including junior prosecutor Lloyd Cutler, and young defense counsel Boris Bittker and Lauson Stone, son of the Chief Justice. But the unabashed hero of the book is chief defense counsel Col. Kenneth Royall, later Secretary of the Army and prominent member of the firm that has now, after many changes, become Clifford Chance LLP. It was Royall who devised the strategy of seeking relief from the Supreme Court, despite the President's declaration that all civilian courts were closed to the defendants. It was Royall who knocked on the front door of Justice Hugo Black's home seeking a writ of certiorari, only to be told, "I don't want to have anything to do with that case of the German spies." It was Royall who persisted, flying to Justice Owen Roberts's farm outside Philadelphia during a trial recess and persuading him, and eventually the Court, to entertain his application. And it was Royall who ultimately received what must be one of the most touching letters ever sent by a losing client to his lawyer. It read, in the careless grammar of his German clients, '[W]e want to state that defense counsel.has represented our case as American officers unbiased, better than we could expect and probably risking the indignation of public opinion. We thank our defense counsel for giving its legal ability.in our behalf.' By the time he read that letter, his clients were dead. The odd epilogue to the trial was the Supreme Court's post-mortem opinion, issued three months after the executions. The Justices had struggled, and failed, to come to an agreement on the rationale for their prior summary order upholding the jurisdiction of the military tribunal. One scholar has described the resulting opinion as 'little more than a ceremonious detour to a predetermined goal.' Several of the Justices in later years acknowledged that the Quirin decision shed little credit on the Court, and Chief Justice Stone himself is said to have expressed misgivings about the outcome. Yet, it is this decision, with all its weaknesses, and the underlying trial, with all its flaws, that is a principal basis for the Government's position on the current trials of enemy combatants. O'Donnell writes persuasively about the weakness of Quirin as a precedent, and about the circumstances that distinguish Guantanamo prisoners from the German saboteurs. But his final note of optimism, that District Court decisions in the cases of 'dirty bomber' Jose Padilla and Guantanamo prisoner Salim Hamdan reflect the beneficial lessons of history, has been undone by the recent Court of Appeals reversals in both cases. It remains to be seen whether the current Supreme Court will consider Quirin to be a valuable precedent, or instead regard it as the Court and the country at large have come to view its notorious decision two years later in Korematsu. Ronald W. Meister is a partner of Cowan Liebowitz & Latman and a member of the Board of Advisors of the National Institute of Military Justice."
-Ronald W. Meister
New York Law Journal, October 11, 2005
 
"Frequently cited in the legal arguments and court decisions regarding the detention of alleged combatants in the war on terrorism is a Supreme Court decision, Ex Parte Quirin, from an earlier war. That decision, from World War II, upheld President Roosevelt's power to order the use of a military commission to try enemy belligerents. It has now been used by the Bush administration to argue the legality of holding detainees without trial at Guantanamo Bay. But in an account that moves briskly from spy story to courtroom drama and on to legal analysis, trial attorney Pierce O'Donnell argues that 'Quirin is a discredited relic of a different time when the judicial branch had not yet wised up to the perils of uncritical acceptance of the executive's assertions of military necessity.' Or, as O'Donnell approvingly quotes Justice Antonin Scalia in dissenting from one of the recent decisions relying on Quirin, it was 'not this Court's finest hour.' Richard Quirin was one of eight Nazi-trained agents who came over on U-boats, landing on Long Island and in Florida, in June 1942. The mission was to sabotage the American war effort by disrupting the aviation industry. But it imploded within days when George Dasch, with the agreement of Ernest Burger, a naturalized American citizen, decided to contact the FBI and turn themselves and the others in. Dasch even went to Washington, hoping to meet with FBI director J. Edgar Hoover -- and to be honored as a hero. The remaining six were rounded up, and Roosevelt ordered trial of all eight by a military tribunal, mainly, as O'Donnell puts it, as a boost to wartime morale, and, perhaps, a warning to Hitler. At the trial, which began just 25 days after the initial landing, the chief defense attorney was Kenneth C. Royall, then a colonel, later secretary of the Army in the Truman administration, a lawyer whose 'fearless representation' O'Donnell compares to John Adams's defense of the British soldiers in the Boston Massacre. Royall's only victory, as the case barreled toward conviction -- and death sentences -- was to get it before the Supreme Court seeking writs of habeas corpus and a transfer of the case to civilian courts. 'The Constitution is not made for peace alone,' Royall argued. 'It is made for war as well as peace. It is not merely for fair weather. The real test of its power and authority -- the real test of its strength to protect the minority -- arises only when it has to be construed in times of stress.'  'A tense silence prevailed in the courtroom,' O'Donnell writes, but with several justices already predisposed against the Germans, most especially Felix Frankfurter, who had 'a deep-seated hatred of the German saboteurs and contempt for their audacity in petitioning the high court,' the Quirin decision was inevitable. The military court announced its guilty verdicts on the morning of Aug. 8, and by early afternoon, six of the saboteurs had been executed. Dasch and Burger received prison sentences. And while the trial itself had been conducted in secret, the arrests, the appeal to the Supreme Court, and the executions were widely -- and approvingly -- covered in the press. Quirin has important implications for civil liberties in time of war, as journalist Anthony Lewis notes in an introduction, and, as O'Donnell writes, those implications are not yet resolved. Until they are, In Time of War will retain its timeliness."
-Michael Kenney
Boston Globe, June 7, 2005
 
"History can be used and abused. Times change and memories play tricks: thus references to the spirit of the Blitz apropos Londoners' stoical response to last week's bombings were far-fetched, a comforting but false parallel between terrorism and the total war against fascism that ended in 1945. Nostalgia about Dad's Army, Dunkirk or The Few is harmless, but of no relevance when commuters are killed and maimed by jihadist fanatics. Today's enemies are more elusive than V2 rockets or Panzer divisions; fighting them is far harder, defeating them completely probably impossible - whatever happens in future in Iraq, Palestine or Saudi Arabia. It's difficult to imagine that decades hence a million poppies will be strewn over the Mall - as they were yesterday in the culmination of Britain's second world war anniversary tributes - to commemorate final victory over Bin Laden and al-Qaida. Still, parallels and continuities should not be ignored. A new book, In Time of War, Hitler's Terrorist Attack on America, about a little-known episode in the wartime US brings some uncanny echoes about how democratic societies should behave if they are to survive extreme challenges with their values intact. The point is central to Pierce O'Donnell's account of Operation Pastorius, when German agents landed by U-boat in Long Island and Florida in 1942 to organise a fifth column and commit acts of sabotage. These 'Keystone commandos' were not the Third Reich at its most ruthlessly efficient: within weeks all had been picked up by the FBI after being betrayed by one of their own team. Arraigned before a special military tribunal, they were defended by a US army colonel, who failed to challenge the right of President Roosevelt to try them without a jury. In a landmark judgment, the supreme court upheld the presidential decision. Six of the eight, including two US citizens, were sent to the electric chair. The colonel, Kenneth Royall, went on to become secretary of the army, an honourable soldier and dogged believer in the rule of law. The contemporary relevance of all this has been provided by the Bush administration, claiming since 9/11 that the case serves as a precedent for its policy of detaining suspects without charges or access to courts, including the hundreds of 'enemy combatants' held in Guantánamo Bay. But the book demonstrates conflict of interest, bias and judicial meekness in the face of overweening executive power. 'If the judges are to run a court of law and not a butcher shop, the reason for killing a man should be expressed before he is dead,' protested one lawyer. Nor, O'Donnell argues, should the 1942 case be any guide to the present, when Bush's legal team, including the attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, have advised the president he has the authority to ignore international treaties such as the Geneva conventions and congressional laws prohibiting torture of enemy soldiers and requiring hearings to determine whether they are entitled to POW status. Colin Powell, another honourable soldier, and secretary of state at the time of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, expressed alarm at the reversal of over a century of policy that could undermine legal protection for US troops. And worldwide protests, it's worth remembering, were dismissed by the witty Donald Rumsfeld as 'isolated pockets of international hyperventilation'. The US and Britain in 2005 are a long way from a world war, which is fading from memory into history with each setpiece anniversary as the number of surviving participants dwindles. But these are volatile and dangerous times, as much within societies as between states. Every country that finds itself caught up in today's war on terror would do well to ponder this cautionary tale 'of unchecked executive power in time of crisis'."
-Ian Black
The Guardian, July 11, 2005
 
"In June 1942, eight Nazi agents landed via submarine along the shores of Long Island and Florida but were quickly captured. President Roosevelt ordered a secret military tribunal to try them, and six were executed, even though no actual attacks had been carried out. Attorney O'Donnell (Fatal Subtraction: The Inside Story of Buchwald vs. Paramount) examines the complex legal decisions and far-reaching ramifications surrounding this incident. In addition, he attacks the Bush administration for using this incident to justify holding people without trial or effective representation during our current war on terror. The FBI does not come off well in O'Donnell's account, owing in large part to J. Edgar Hoover's hunger for positive publicity even as the FBI blundered through the crisis. More law-oriented than Michael Dobbs's Saboteurs: The Nazi Raid on America, this book instead recalls Louis Fischer's Nazi Saboteurs on Trial: A Military Tribunal and American Law but offers more details about the frustrated defense attorney, army colonel Kenneth C. Royall. This book addresses an important and emotional national issue, and if we cannot even debate it, then the Constitution is dead. Strongly recommended."
-Daniel K. Blewett
Library Journal, June 12, 2005
 
"In 1942, Nazi U-boats landed eight German-Americans with sabotage gear on the U.S. coast. Almost immediately, their leader phoned the FBI to turn everyone in. Traditionally, historians treat this episode as WWII comic relief. . . . O'Donnell treats it not as terrorism but as a sad example of national hysteria trumping justice-one with real relevance today. The arrests made headlines, producing universal outrage and cries for revenge. Anxious to gratify public clamor, President Roosevelt ordered a secret trial by a military commission operating only under the 'laws of war.' After three weeks of silence, a bulletin announced the execution of six defendants and long prison terms for two. Public opinion enthusiastically approved. The author, a lawyer, agrees with most legal scholars that Roosevelt's order and the trial were a disgrace. But current Bush administration officials consider FDR's handling of the saboteurs a precedent. O'Donnell devotes his final 70 pages to refuting this, quoting liberally from court transcripts of appeals filed by the prisoners. His account of the German saboteurs is also dense with legal maneuvering and now-available trial records. . . . this book is a passionate defense of the Bill of Rights."
-Publishers Weekly, May 23, 2005
 
"One year after the revelations of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, journalists are still reporting stories about similar abuse. While the recent Newsweek article alleging Koran desecration at Guantanamo was retracted, it again fanned the fiery debate of how to prosecute our enemies without compromising our moral standing. Which is why trial lawyer Pierce O'Donnell's new nonfiction history of Nazi saboteurs on American soil is so timely and topical. It's an examination of the thin grey line between the techniques used to interrogate and then prosecute our enemies, and the rule of law laid down by our Constitution and centuries' old body of jurisprudence, established by judges and juries since the Revolutionary War. In Time of War: Hitler's Terrorist Attack on America is a detailed account of a German plot launched in 1942 to blow up key industrial facilities and retail establishments on American soil, designed to crippled our armaments industry and spread fear among the populace. It bears unsettling reminders of the 9/11 attacks, with one important distinction: The German plot was stopped. The saboteurs were captured soon after they disembarked in New York and Florida from Nazi U-boats cruising precariously close to the homeland. Anxious to calm public fears, President Roosevelt convened a secret military commission to try them under special 'laws of war.' The commission announced that six defendants would be executed and two would linger in prison. Years later, the Bush administration has cited the case as a precedent for holding 'enemy combatants' in the War on Terrorism without allowing them a public trial or access to legal counsel. O'Donnell, named as one of '100 Most Influential Lawyers' by National Law Journal, spins his plot like a thriller, while occasionally bogging down in dry recreations of the commission's prosecution of the defendants, two of whom were American citizens of German extraction. O'Donnell notes that the reason the men were picked by German military intelligence was because all of the Nazis had lived stateside. The situation is eerily reminiscent of the 9/11 hijackers in that they, too, had lived here, taking advantage of America's lax immigration laws, before eventually wreaking their havoc. O'Donnell takes his facts and law seriously, and his thoroughly researched book highlights mistakes that were made, both in apprehension and prosecution of the strike team. The reader learns that an unarmed Coast Guard employee was the first to spot the New York saboteur unit on the shores of Long Island - not the FBI, as ace media manipulator J. Edgar Hoover implied. And George John Dasch - recruited to lead the terrorists - turns out to have been planning to expose the plot to authorities once he reached American soil, because of his love for our democratic way of life. O'Donnell deftly reveals the complicated psychological undercarriage of a supposedly black-and-white plot, while detailing the almost-funny dining, partying and romantic activities of the eight as they re-establish their American social networks before being caught. The main lawyer for seven of the eight defendants, an army officer named Col. Royall, took his job so seriously he managed to get the case considered by the Supreme Court, when it became obvious the military commission had decided, before the proceedings even began, to have the men shot. 'FDR needed a showcase trial,' O'Donnell writes, 'to demonstrate to the American people and Hitler that the United States could protect itself from enemy spies and saboteurs.' The commission convened in July 1942 and was composed of military officers who reached a verdict within a couple of weeks. The German citizens were condemned to death, while the two American citizens of German extraction were sentenced to life in prison. Royall becomes the hero of the book, a defender of constitutional and judicial rights, with O'Donnell putting him on a pedestal with splashes of purple prose. The counselor's skirmishes with Attorney General Biddle, the lead prosecutor, read like today's courtroom dramas on television, but without a good soundtrack. But O'Donnell saves the fireworks of In Time of War for the end of the book, where the writer ties in this 63-year-old case to today's civil liberties, specifically referencing the alleged terrorists of Rumsfeld v. Padilla and Hamdi v. Rumsfeld. Both of these cases involve American citizens, and turf battles between the executive branch, the judicial branch and constitutional guarantees. The jury is still out on these contemporary cases, but the treatment of those Nazi saboteurs shines a provocative light on the Bush administration's legal position."
-Kelly Lemieux
Rocky Mountain News, July 1, 2005
 
"The nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court will get some extra reading soon. Flamboyant Los Angeles attorney Pierce O'Donnell says he plans to send each justice a copy of his new book, 'In Time of War: Hitler's Terrorist Attack on America.' Whether the court's members will read it is an open question, of course. But as a former Supreme Court clerk, O'Donnell may have a bit more of an entrée than other authors seeking high judicial review of their tomes. In addition, O'Donnell believes his book may pique at least some justices' interest because of its resonance in current disputes over the fair and proper legal treatment of hundreds of terrorism suspects now held at Guantánamo and elsewhere. Serving the justices with their very own copies is not a bad marketing move, either, dovetailing neatly with other promotions for the book. These include a Web site containing additional material such as court documents that couldn't be shoehorned into the book without turning a semihefty volume into something the size of an unabridged dictionary. Legal-thriller author John Grisham also did his part to give O'Donnell's book a boost. Grisham contributed a fulsome last-minute blurb that is affixed to the book's cover on a sticker: 'Riveting - a blazing red flag of caution to any government hell-bent on tampering with constitutional rights in a time of crisis.' And Grisham's blurb paves the way for an introduction by another famous writer, former New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner Anthony Lewis, who calls O'Donnell's work 'required reading' for anyone interested in a historical perspective on the urge to imprison suspects first and worry about their rights later, sometimes when it is much too late. That's not to say the book, which began arriving in bookstores over the last few days, is all packaging and no punch. Its core is 365 pages of narrative that examines the capture and trial of eight Nazi saboteurs in 1942 by a secret military commission that sentenced two of the accused to long prison terms and ordered the execution of the six others, all within weeks of their capture. President Roosevelt reviewed and upheld the sentences. Ultimately, the Supreme Court upheld Roosevelt's actions in a case that has been cited frequently by the Bush administration for its handling of the judicial aspects of the war on terrorism. O'Donnell's narrative is not light reading by any means. It turns on complicated constitutional arguments about jurisdiction and habeas corpus law regarding unsympathetic characters in the service of an odious regime. On the whole, I agree with the review in the trade magazine Publishers Weekly that commented, 'Readers expecting wartime fireworks will be disappointed; this book is a passionate defense of the Bill of Rights.' . . . For me, the best parts of the book are about O'Donnell's hero, Kenneth Royall, the North Carolina lawyer and Army colonel assigned to lead the saboteurs' defense. A member of the Southern legal establishment, Royall, nonetheless, led a vigorous defense of unsympathetic clients, notably insisting on an appeal to the Supreme Court on the legality of the military commission trial. The eight saboteurs, all of whom had spent time in the United States and including two who were citizens, were a pitiful bunch. Landed in separate groups from submarines onto beaches in New York and Florida, some could hardly wait to surrender. Only one, by O'Donnell's count, was a dedicated Nazi. Yet, O'Donnell acknowledges, all acted in ways that left them vulnerable to the legal fates they met. On landing, they changed from military uniforms into civilian clothes, ending any chance they might claim prisoner-of-war status. Moreover, both groups brought explosives ashore. 'By assuming a civilian disguise, however, they lost the protections of international law and were subject to summary punishment,' O'Donnell writes. Still, he argues, as have many others who have reviewed the saboteurs' case, that its handling was deeply flawed. For instance, the secrecy under which the case was conducted allowed the FBI and its director, J. Edgar Hoover, to cover up the agency's bumbling in the initial stages of the matter. More troubling was the U.S. Supreme Court's handling of the case. Essentially, the court upheld President Roosevelt's order to try the saboteurs by military commission and issued a final opinion, Ex Parte Quirin, months after the six sentenced to death had been executed. 'The frenzied pace of the proceedings and the Germans' execution without a full opinion gave the appearance that the Supreme Court was stampeded by Roosevelt,' O'Donnell writes. 'The justices heard argument without the benefit of reading the briefs ahead of time, decided the case in less than a day with virtually no collective deliberation ... and were in the dark about how the secret military trial had been conducted and how the military commission would rule.' A rush to judgment, indeed."
-Gary Abrams
Daily Journal, June 7, 2005
 
"In this fascinating book, Pierce O'Donnell, a leading trial lawyer and indefatigable researcher, revisits the circumstances surrounding the trial of eight Nazi saboteurs in Washington in the summer of 1942. The submarine-borne soldiers landed in Florida and on Long Island in June with orders to disrupt American armaments production, and, during their spare time, to attack Jewish-owned businesses (the Nazis had a particular animus for Macy's department store). The eight had been chosen for their familiarity with America rather than their commitment to the Nazi cause. In fact, one, a German-American called George John Dasch, loathed Hitler's regime, and contacted the FBI almost as soon as he reached New York. However, the capture of the other saboteurs witnessed one of the darker episodes of the Roosevelt presidency. Most people, the president included, were opposed to giving them a fair trial. Roosevelt, whose wartime mindset O'Donnell describes in fascinating detail, had a war to win. He had already demonstrated that he was prepared to stoop to conquer when he ordered the mass internment of Japanese-Americans, a popular but illegal and unjust measure. He advocated placing the Germans before a military commission, knowing that it would almost certainly recommend their executions. Having them shot would bring a 'dark season of defeats' to an end, he reasoned, and make for some excellent anti-Nazi propaganda. Another powerful figure was also arguing for dispatch. J Edgar Hoover, the director of the FBI, was loudly claiming credit for tracking down the saboteurs. He feared an open trial, during which the truth might emerge: that his agents had not taken Dasch seriously when he contacted them, and that the German had practically been forced to beg the Bureau to send agents to his hotel to arrest him. Nor did Hoover want it known that he had duplicitously offered Dasch a presidential pardon in return for his full cooperation with the investigations. Counsel for the damned was a resourceful young trial lawyer called Kenneth Royall. Before the dreary military court, he argued passionately that his clients were entitled to the protection of the constitution, saying that it applied in wartime as well as during 'fair weather' .Royall prepared his case under almost unbearable strain. As a serving soldier, he was in danger of undermining the president's authority, his commander-in-chief; the yellow press depicted him as an unpatriotic scoundrel; and he received no help from his fellow lawyers. But he managed to breathe hope into a hopeless cause by persuading the Supreme Court to consider the case. Under the circumstances, it was the best he could have done. The Supreme Court ruled that the military tribunal was lawfully constituted. Dasch was one of only two Germans whose lives the tribunal spared. Many years later, he befriended Charlie Chaplin, another victim of J Edgar Hoover. "
-Peter Hegarty
The Sunday Business Post , July 31, 2005
 
"A forgotten episode of World War II, the Supreme Court case it sparked, and the precedent it set for the Bush Administration's Secret Military Tribunals in Guantanamo Bay. Author reputation: Pierce O'Donnell has been selected by the National Law Journal as one of the '100 Most Influential Lawyers in America.' He has attended the Guantanamo, Hamdi, and Padilla hearings and will be a 'go to' authority in 2005 when the Guantanamo Bay military trials of the first group of six persons and the Hamdi and Padilla public trials take place. Contemporary relevance: last chapter devoted to discussing Supreme Court's decisions in Guantanamo and Hamdi/Padilla cases; these cases use the Supreme Court case about the German terrorists (ex parte Quirin) as a precendent for the Imprisonment of Taliban and al Qaeda fighters at the Guantanamo Naval base in Cuba 60 years later. The amazing story of eight German terrorists dropped off by two submarines on the shores of Long Island and Florida in 1944. Their mission was to blow up major railroad hubs, aluminum plants, and, if they had time, Macy's. As we move toward trials challenging the legitimacy of the Bush administration's use of detentions in Guantanamo and elsewhere, Roosevelt's response to the captured Germans - military tribunals, a secret trial, and hasty executions -- offers a cautionary tale of the danger of unchecked executive power in a time of crisis. The best kind of historical non-fiction: a rollicking narrative driven by the personality of the central character: the brilliant trial attorney Kenneth Royall, designated to represent the Germans, who took on the President of the United States and the Supreme Court. A cautionary account of the dangers of unchecked executive power. "
-Bokkilden, August 6, 2005
 
"Famed trial lawyer Pierce O'Donnell has always had a yen to write screenplays, poetry, a column in the Pasadena Weekly, which he founded. With his new book, 'In Time of War,' O'Donnell, a former Pasadena congressional candidate, once again enters the political arena as he explores FDR's treatment of Nazi saboteurs. O'Donnell draws parallels with what he calls President Roosevelt's abuse of executive power in the 1942 trial of eight Nazi spies and the Bush administration's current handling of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. O'Donnell, who lived in Pasadena and Altadena for 25 years before recently moving to Montecito, says he originally intended to write a screenplay focused solely on the 1942 trial. 'I first found the story in a 1999 magazine article and thought that it would make a really great movie,' O'Donnell said. 'Then Sept. 11 happened. I realized that my subject matter was now more relative to what was going on in our country. When Bush announced his actions in Afghanistan, the movie became a book.' O'Donnell focuses on trial lawyer and former Sen. Kenneth C. Royall and his fight to uphold the Constitution in the face of a discouraging president and angry public. Against all advice, Royall decides to fight for a fair trial in the civil courts for his Nazi clients, citing Roosevelt's suggestion of a military tribunal as an 'undeclared war on the rule of law.' In writing the story, O'Donnell says he found his own experiences in court he's been named one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America by the National Law Journal gave him valuable insight to Royall's perspective. 'Throughout the process of putting this story together, I increasingly related to what Royall was doing,' O'Donnell said. 'I've been at that point, knowing that my argument could be the difference between life and death for a person. It's both lonely and exhilarating. People often don't realize that trial lawyers can really make a difference in society.' ...In the last few chapters of his book, O'Donnell brings the story forward 60 years to President Bush's attempts to use Roosevelt's actions in 1942 as justification for what he calls neglect of the Geneva accords on prisoners of war. A lifelong activist Democrat, he describes Bush as a 'president who believes he is omnipotent.' O'Donnell, who will sign his book at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena this fall, hopes that it will encourage his readers to become more engaged in the political situations at hand. 'Through entertaining, I hope to educate,' he said. 'I feel that this could make a significant difference and maybe wake Congress out of their stupor.'"
-Emma Vaughn
Pasadena Star , July 10, 2005



 
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