I refuse to let laws or constitutions or whatever handcuff our war effort. Just like any war, people must be sacrificed. US can't risk having the dirty bomb exploded in NY. The probability of him being guilty is very high. If not, he has to be sacrificed for greater goods. It is his own fault to putting himself in that position. There are a lot of things you have to do wrong to be black listed by FBI.
We can't fight those terrorists fair and square. We must fight dirty to terrorize the terrorists. The ends justify the means. We must search and destroy. I have this same debate with coworkers before. They say if we go down to their level they already won or some crap like that. Dennis Miller said if that is the case it would be nice to have less of them in their championship celebration
I would go alnong with the above if I knew for certain that he was guilty. A claim by the government is not enough for me.
I just plain do not trust politicians, police, justice department personnel, district attorneys, et cetera to be honest. They often have motives not related to a search for truth and justice.
In my city they put a man (Neil Ferber) on death row after a trial that was outrageous. The prosecutors used perjured testimony and supressed evidence they know would result in a not guilty verdict. Neil won a law suit for several million dollars after spending a few years on death row. He was not a model citizen, but had never commited a violent crime.
The above is not the only case like this. The FBI has knowing let innocent men be convicted. To enhance their image, they put a German informant in Jail for espionage in the forties. This poor guy had lived in the US from infancy and was taken back to Germany by his parents when he was a teenager. When the Nazis sent him to the US with a group of spies and saboteurs, he told the FBI everything because he sympathized with the USA, not Germany. Hoover and the FBI wanted credit for uncovering the plot and put him in jail with the others.
The above are only a few instances of gross miscarriages of justice. I do not want any bureaucrat, judge, prosecuter, politician, et cetera to be allowed to put somebody in jail without trial or due process.
The government should be viewed as a necessary evil to be constantly watched and held in check. While I would not trade our current system for any other (although Switzerland looks good), I consider our government as potentially more dangerous than almost anybody else. They have the legal right to use guns and lock people up. If they do somthing outrageous, you can be in trouble for shooting back. If the mafia comes after you, you can plead self defense if you survive after wasting a few of them.