Bush's power to detain US enemy combatant upheld
9/9/05
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050909/pl_nm/security_padilla_dc
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush has the power to detain Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen who has been held in a South Carolina military brig for more than three years as a suspected enemy combatant without any charges, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday.
"The exceedingly important question before us is whether the president of the United States possesses the authority to detain militarily a citizen of this country who is closely associated with al Qaeda," wrote appeals court Judge J. Michael Luttig for the three-judge panel.
"We conclude that the president does possess such authority," wrote Luttig, a conservative whom the Bush administration has been considering for a possible Supreme Court nomination...
So. there we are. We live in a dictatorship. When the president can imprison anybody. citizen or not he wants, for as long as he wants, for whatever reason he chooses, can any of us say we are a free people?
"...U.S. officials last year backed off their claim that Padilla was plotting to set off a dirty bomb. They said Padilla had plotted with al Qaeda leaders to blow up apartment buildings by using natural gas. None of the plots was carried out..."
and without even being charged with a crime.
And while we are on the subject. This weekend is the 4th anniversary of the Sep 11 incident. I have two questions for little georgie. Where's the evidence for your claim that Osama bin Laden was reponsible, and where is Osama? I guess just saying we're going to get him "dead or alive" doesn't necessarily make it happen. Reality seems to have a bad habit of intruding on your fantasies, don't it georgie.
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