Kia's World

From Yahoo! News

Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri was a legal US resident who came to the US on Sept 10, 2001 with wife and children to study computer programming in Peoria, IL.  The next day, the twin towers fell, and not long after that, the feds came to call.  Two years later, he ended up in a military brig through the power of executive order.  The government claims he is an enemy combatant, his defenders claim he is a legal resident and entitled to his rights under the Constitution.  And while the courts are busy fighting it out, al-Marri is forced to wait.

Personally, I feel this is both grossly unconstitutional and just plain wrong.  Not only is the evidence cited against him in the article far from conclusive, but holding someone who is a legal resident and not invovled with the military in any way in a military prison, where he does not have access to legal counsel, cannot get out on bail, and can be held indefinitely without justifiable cause, is DEFINITELY unconstitutional.  And he's been there five years!  And what about his wife and kids?  The article doesn't even mention them.

Towards the end of the article:

One judge questioned why there was such anxiety over the policy. After all, there have been no mass roundups of citizens and no indications the White House is coming for innocent Americans next.

Another judge said the question is not whether the president was generous in his use of power; it is whether the power is constitutional.

When rights become privileges to be revoked as necessitated by the dictates of wartime, it is time to be afraid.