Your Fascist Government at Work

Ashcroft may be going, but his spirit will live on. Your "Justice" Department believes that your "government" has the right to arrest anyone, anywhere in the world on suspicion of whatever, and whisk them off to Guantanamo Bay and hold them forever without rights of any kind. From AP:

Under detailed questioning by a federal judge, government lawyers asserted Wednesday that the U.S. military could hold foreigners indefinitely as enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, even if they aided terrorists unintentionally and never fought the United States.

Could a "little old lady in Switzerland" who sent a check to an orphanage in Afghanistan be taken into custody if, unbeknownst to her, some of her donation was passed to Al Qaeda terrorists? asked U.S. District Judge Joyce Hens Green.

"She could," replied Deputy Associate Atty. Gen. Brian Boyle. "Someone's intention is clearly not a factor that would disable detention." It would be up to a newly established military review panel to decide whether to believe her and release her.

Boyle said the military could pick any foreigner who provided support to terrorists or might know of their plans. And the foreigners held on the U.S. naval base in Cuba "have no constitutional rights enforceable in this court," Boyle told the judge.
...
Green asked how the government defined an enemy combatant who aided terrorists or Afghanistan's now-toppled Taliban regime.

"It is not limited to individuals who carried a weapon and shot at American troops," Boyle replied.

They don't have to be on the front lines; they can be strategic advisors, intelligence informants, or supply workers, including cooks, he said.

Green asked if a hypothetical resident of England who taught English to the son of an Al Qaeda leader could be detained. Boyle said he could because "Al Qaeda could be trying to learn English to stage attacks there," and he compared that aid to "those shipping bullets to the front." Some detainees have been picked up in Bosnia and others in Africa.

Noting the Supreme Court said detention was to keep combatants from returning to the battlefield, Green asked: "What and where is the battlefield the U.S. military is trying to detain the prisoners from returning to? Africa? London?"

Boyle: "The conflict with Al Qaeda has a global reach."

We hate them for their freedoms, I guess.