A story in the New York Times points out that "no one outside the Bush administration knows just how the determination is made whether to handle a terror suspect as an enemy combatant or as a common criminal, to hold him indefinitely without charges in a military facility or to charge him in court. Indeed, citing the need to combat terrorism, the administration has argued, with varying degrees of success, that judges should have essentially no role in reviewing its decisions." The story goes on to quote Eric M. Freedman, a law professor at Hofstra University: "The position of the executive branch is that it can be judge, jury and executioner."
Apparently the best way to fight terrorism is with a healthy dose of totalitarianism.
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