As you have driven downtown by the Federal Courthouse, it has been hard not to notice to barricades indicating something special was going on. That Something Special was the trial of Sami Al-Arian on charges involving terrorism and other grievious acts against our country. The U.S. Government spent lots of money and time to justify their charges against him. They failed.
No charge of guilt was found against him.
We really have nothing to say about that, except: a jury heard an unbelievable amount of evidence (that we sure haven't) and made a decision.
What does bother us is that days after the trial - with no guilty verdicts - he is still being held. What gives ?
It is hard to miss the rhetoric about Saddam Hussein jailing people with no reason, no trial, hiding them, and abusing them.
Hm... seems like our Bush lead government is doing the same. People being held for years without charges. People being held in secret prisons without any acknowledgement. No trials. Abuse at prisons from Americans or others. AND now, one guy goes to trial with all the resources of the Federal government being dumped on him to prove guilt, the jury finds none, and he is still behind bars.
I think we should classify all this as "For Adults Only". The last thing I would want would be for kids that are being taught about our Constitution and American ideas of a democratic country of laws to find out reality.
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Now in the calm...after the storm of 911, the patriotic rhetoric of our right-wing screaming for blood, and that "something must be done"...Whammo!! The Patriot Act..A liscense to detain without due process,to torture without the pithy Geneva Convention articles to get in the way, and basically doing away with The Bill of Rights all in one neat little package. Yeaa!! Aren't we the smart ones? Each day we lose a little more freedom in the proposition of protecting it. A trade that history will show, short-changed us all.
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