Saw an
interesting post about John Roberts and his views on the open-ended confinement of suspected terrorists with no due process. It got me thinking.
This whole terrorist thing is still fairly new in the United States, right? We're not used to stuff like the IRA bombings in England or ETA terrorism in Spain. So the United States' response has been a complete crackdown on any suspected terrorists -- take no chances, throw 'em in the pen. Due process be damned.
A lot of American aren't concerned about this.
I think they feel this way: "They must have been doing something bad for the government to zero in on them as terrorists, so even if they can't be convicted based on the evidence, they're bad people and I don't want them out on the streets."
Of course this goes against this country's whole mantra of innocent until proven guilty, but I'm not saying anything new by bringing that up.
My question is, how long can it go on? Terrorism is here to stay, as far as I can see -- 5 years from now, we'll still be talking about, probably 10 years from now, too. Does that mean every person with any suspected ties to terrorism will never get any shot at defending themselves? Does this Jose Padilla character still rot in a cell 10 years from now, never getting an opportunity in a U.S. court?
It seems ludicrous, but I can't see any reason to believe that won't be the case. I'm anti-terrorist in case you were wondering, but, still, there are probably some innocents getting caught in the net, too. Look at that guy shot in London the other day. Shot for coming out of the wrong building, and wearing a jacket judged too warm for the weather. You think there aren't other people sitting in jails right now that were in the wrong place at the wrong time? There have to be.
At what point does our government decide that basic human rights should be granted to these people?