Padilla's indefinite detention puts your rights at risk

You're a U.S. citizen landing at a major airport from abroad. You're pulled out of line at customs, arrested, thrown in jail for a month and then spirited off to a military prison.

Nearly three years later, you're still there, never charged with any crime. The government claims it can hold you forever without answering to any judge or court.

The scenario is not fiction. It's happening now. Only a federal judge in South Carolina is standing in the way. At stake is the constitutional guarantee of every American to be free from arbitrary imprisonment.

Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen born in Brooklyn, N.Y., was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare Airport in May 2002. He's still being held. No charges have been filed.

Despite the clear language of the Constitution that prohibits detention without trial, the Bush administration insists that it can indefinitely hold Padilla - or anyone else it chooses - as an "enemy combatant" without trial or even formal charges.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=742&e=1&u=/usatoday/20050304/cm_usatoday/padillasindefinitedetentionputsyourrightsatrisk

I'm continually wondering why there isn't any outrage about this -- the threat to our OWN rights, even if we don't care about other people's rights.

No by-line on this, just a Yahoo op-ed. I wonder who writes these.

snip>

Perhaps he is a threat. Perhaps there's reason for suspicion but not enough evidence to convict. Or perhaps the government erred in arresting him and would rather not admit it. Without a trial, there's no way to find out.


For obvious reasons, the Constitution denies the president or his aides the power to decide by themselves that a citizen can be imprisoned indefinitely without judicial review. Armed with such power, an administration could imprison its political opponents or silence them with the threat.

snip>

This case is not just about Jose Padilla. It's about every citizen's liberty. If the foundations of freedom crumble under the stresses of the war on terrorism, the terrorists will have won.

snip>


Thanks for posting this.

This is Bush's greatest crime against we of the US. It is proof of his fascism and disinterest in the Constitution.

Is there a way to read yahoo without all that point and click work? When they have an article to 500,000 responses its downtight tedious to read even 5 of them.

And, this administration has done a lot of unconstitutional impeachable offense things to US citizens and we get nary a whimper, tacit approval by us Americans this is OK.

-85%

there is a period going through customs where you have exited country A and have not entered the US. At this point in time, you arent covered by either country A's laws or US laws. In short, you have no civil rights.