in the news # two

Jose Padilla, an alleged Al Qaeda operative, made his first court appearance Thursday after being held as an "enemy combatant" for more than 3 years.

Padilla, who was transfered from military to civilian custudy, was the subject of a lawsuit that the Bush administration took to the Supreme Court.

The decision handed down by the high court allowing criminal charges to be brought against Padilla is a temporary victory for the Bush administration, who asked the court to accept a transfer order shortly after filing charges.

In May 2002 Padilla was arrested at the Chicago O'Hare airport on charges that he sought to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" inside of the United States. After being taken into custody, Padilla was held for approximately 3 1/2 years without legal rights and without charges being filed against him.

The Bush administration argued that the criminal charges made the Supreme Court appeal of several civil rights groups moot. The Supreme Court had been asked to define the nature of Presidental power in reference to civilian detention. However, the Bush administration circumvented the Supreme Court's analysis on this issue for the time being.
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I'll admit that I am skeptical of the expansion of the Executive Branch during the Bush administration. I'm well aware that we need to fight Islamofascists with every possible tool, and that our leaders view this sort of detention as a necessary aspect of fighting the War on Terrorism. Hopefully we haven't scarified too much for our security. As it stands right now, I think i'm in favor of doing whatever's necessary to "enemy combatants" who are not legal citizens of the United States. If the "enemy combatant" is a citizen of the U.S., however, I think we must give them their rights (and charge them with treason!).