Terra-ist Beware: You May Not Know You Are One

I don't know whether this falls under the label hubris or just brutal honesty but they have finally admitted it: anyone can be arrested and held in military detention, indefinitely, if the Preznit thinks you are a terra-ist.

Several times, Boyle reminded Green that judges should defer to a president at war. But Green asked whether "a little old lady in Switzerland" could be detained as an enemy combatant if she contributed money to an organization that was "a front for al-Qaeda," even though she thought she was giving money to help orphans.

Green offered other scenarios, including: someone from Ireland who taught English to an al-Qaeda operative; a man who knew his cousin was an al-Qaeda member but did not report it to police; and a reporter who knew Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s whereabouts but refused to tell authorities for fear of revealing a source's identity.

Boyle said it is possible that the people in Green's fictitious examples could be taken into custody. Green then pushed Boyle to define the battlefield in the war on terror.

"If an enemy combatant can include someone in Africa or Europe who never came within 1,000 miles of the battlefield (in Afghanistan (news - web sites)), what and where is the battlefield?" she asked, referring to three detainees captured in Africa.

There are no boundaries, Boyle said, because al-Qaeda is a global terrorist group "like nothing we have seen before."

Trust me, they aren't stopping with the little old lady in Switzerlannd. Try peace protessters on college campuses.