For those who were brought to trial, the exercise of justice was placed in the hands of secret and unaccountable military tribunals—part of what Judith Butler describes as “a broader tactic to neutralize the rule of law in the name of security.” Their shoddy practices call to mind the way in which the case against Issa—such as it is—has been cobbled together with hearsay and secondhand reports constituting evidence. This “cowboy tradition of vigilante justice” is articulated at the end of the novel by the CIA agent Newton, who tells Bachmann, “Justice has been rendered, man.… Justice from the fucking hip, man. No-crap justice, that kind of justice! Justice with no fucking lawyers around to pervert the course” (338–39, emphasis and ellipses in original).

XREF: Connects to Judith Butler's critique of security rhetoric neutralizing rule of law; also parallels ongoing debates about rendition and military tribunals.

Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, loc. 333