That said, I do not subscribe to the theory that we are holding any one, especially an American citizen, without cause. Unless the Army can make this guy disappear forever, he would have one hell of a lawsuit, book deal, etc. if he were truly being held in violation of his Constitutional rights. Further, the fact that the Army does not release any information, in spite of the media criticism, tells me they are content with what they have on him.

What bothers me is the insinuation that we are out targeting journalists. I the following comment in my search for information on this:

"I think the Americans have gotten a lot more trigger-happy and twitchy after the campaign of car bombs and other violence. [.....]"

This is totally absurd, and exposes the author's willingness to make false assuptions about what is happening in Iraq.

The ACLU has gotten Mr. Kar's name out there, so he cannot be "erased". We will be hearing more about him soon. My prediction is that the Army will come up with the information the ACLU is lacking.

As I understand the term, "treason" is a crime for which to be convicted a person must first stand trial. I also understand that American citizens, when arrested or detained, are guaranteed due process of law. The only exception is when habeus corpus has been suspended; unless I missed something, that has not happened. To my mind, the true "expatriots" are those who would fail to defend one of the core protections afforded by the Fifth Amendment of our Constitution, those who would unquestioningly allow the federal government to indefinitely detain American citizens without due process. A true patriot would maintain a healthy skepticism when it comes to governmental overreaching. Conservatives have traditionally maintained such a skepticism, and just last year Justice O'Connor wrote that "We have long since made clear that a state of war is not a blank check for the President when it comes to the rights of the Nation's citizens."

But is that true? Have we long since made this clear? It appears that some readers, even after the Supreme Court's pronouncement, are content to idly stand by and and watch as the President continues to write bad checks. Checks that will ultimately spend down and then bankrupt our most precious resource: our civil rights.

If we're to the point where the government merely alleges "X is a traitor!" and our only response is "Die, traitor!" then we are well down the road away from the Constitution.

J.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/06/international/middleeast/06detain.html