On Wednesday, October 17, 2001, at 01:53 PM, Declan McCullagh wrote:
Naturally the thin legal fiction of having a lawyer technically representing you, no matter whether you've been able to speak with him or exchange any useful information, makes any brutal prison regime an acceptable one. No matter that the Washington Post article, which started this thread, did not say that all post-Sep.11 detainees have lawyers, and there is reason to believe some do not.
Of the 600+ being held without charges, bail, lawyers, etc., wanna bet that about 500+ of them will never be charged, never give any useful information? This was a "panic sweep," a "round up all the suspects" case, a shotgun blast of arresting anyone with any imagined, guessed, or coincidence in names connection with the likely attackers (and since many of those in the 4 planes were believed to be using stolen passports, even the coincidence in names is even more coincidental). Anyway, as Declan says, this is being covered in newspaper stories. (No coverage that I've seen in a hundreds of hours of coverage on CNN, MSNBC, Fox, ABC, CBS, or NBC. None. Just vague mentions of "several hundred detainees.") The issue is not "coddling the terrorists," the issue is the expansion over decades of police powers to the point where "speedy trial" and "jury of peers" and "due process" means nothing. I expect King George would have loved to have these kinds of police powers: if Patrick Henry is causing troubles in the colonies, but no grounds for arresting him can be found, just arrest him and hold him indefinitely as a "material witness." And don't "coddle" him! That'll take care of the uppity colonists and their quaint talk about liberty. And King George _really_ would have been thrilled to have the Nazi-like powers to put a hundred thousand persons of some ethnic background into concentration camps! --Tim May "You don't expect governments to obey the law because of some higher moral development. You expect them to obey the law because they know that if they don't, those who aren't shot will be hanged." - -Michael Shirley