Enemy Combatant

First of all i hate the term "enemy combatant". To me it says we are illegally holding somebody prisoner, besides it sounds plain stupid.

However the post tonight concerns Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar, who legally entered the United States on September 10th, 2001 with his wife and family. He was to attend Bradley University where be had gotten a degree 10 years earlier. He was arrested in December 2001 through events that seem to be of his own doing. The problem I have is that the government ultimately charged him with being an enemy combatant before his criminal could come to trial 18 months after his arrest. At that time they transferred him out of Justice Department custody and sent him to a Navy brig in South Carolina and not charged with anything. The detention in the Navy brig had nothing to do with the original arrest. He was in isolation for most of the time he was in the brig. During his imprisonment he was repeatedly questioned using various techniques and they never got any information from him. He repeatedly told the gov't he was innocent. This frustrated John Ashcroft and Bush as they were convinced otherwise. During all this time he never was able to meet with his lawyers, has not seen his family and was not receiving due process. Through many legal challenges by his legal team he was transferred out of the brig and the case is now back in the civilian court system where his fate will ultimately be decide.

You need to read more on the case to get the whole gist of the case if you are interested in due process.

The problem I have is that we as a nation should not be holding people as enemy combatants, not charge them with anything and not let them take the case to court. The gov't should charge these people with crime and then let the case go to court. They also need to give the defense access to the evidence. There is no evidence that should be deemed "too sensitive" for "We The People" to hear. When I hear this it makes me think we are hiding things that puts the case in doubt.

Remember that Ali was legally in the United States. He was arrested in the United States and had not gone to court to hear his charges until very recently. He has been in prison since December 2001. Remember that you as an American citizen can be charged as an enemy combatant and have this happen to you. I have no idea if he is innocent or guilty and I do not care at this point. The point is that if you are a citizen of this country or if you are legally here from another country you should NEVER be held under any circumstances without due process. These are not the things we as citizens should accept or be proud of. These are the things that makes much of the rest of the world despise American government policies. We are supposed to be the ones showing the rest rest of the world how to be free and when we do things like this it makes us look no better than the countries we are fighting. In fact I think it makes us look like hypocrites. Charge them, let the case go to court and deal with the outcome. We are supposed to be a fair country, we need to act like one.

Watch this case. The implications are big.