" It's notable that Mr. Mukasey regards waterboarding as torture if done on him... but is a little hazy on the technique if used on others. This is classic authoritarian enabling, something that has not been done in the USA in decades. The US Constitution and Bill of Rights apply to everybody... ALL the time... or... the terrorists have won. ~Ruff "

" First off...the era of our Constitution, and in every war period since, if an American was caught spying either entering of returning or in a combat zone..say Afghanistan or Iraq or otherwise aiding the enemy using American citizenship as a means to hide it was far more common to be tried by a military tribunal as it has jurisdiction for national security. I’m sure the writer ‘unintentionally over looked’ this minor historical fact. ‘Here’ is the ‘real problem,’ the purpose of the ‘enemy’ combatant status is many fold but primarily to avoid disclosing highly sensitive intelligence assets...which is ultimately, for anybody who paid any attention they’d know this, why this parasite Padilla was tried for lessor crimes to avoid having to risk the disclosure assets. We can’t even trust the Democrat Party Leadership from leaking every sensitive secret that crosses their desk to the NY Times...how you going to trust a flaming leftwing loon defense attorney? The moral of the story is don’t fly to Afghanistan seeking radioactive materials to build and detonate a bomb in downtown Chicago, and if you do don’t expect your ‘Miranda’ to be translated....don’t expect to make any phone calls to Kabul and don’t expect the tax payers to pay for you legal fees... which is ultimately why so many lawyers are whining...
"

" Great letter. Padilla was treated very unfairly and clearly in violation of US law. The Bush administration was clearly on a fishing expedition with him, and when forced to put him on trial after four years in the brig with toture included, brought charges that had nothing to do with what they said they were holding him for. Padilla may not be a particularly sympathetic character, but for all those Republicans constantly saying we have to go by the Constitution, what happened here? The fact is that the Bush administration largely at Cheney's behest is undoing the checks and balances imposed on the Executive branch and making the Presidency an isolated dictator of more and more authority and less and less judicial or Congressinal oversight. Few Americans really realize how extensive this has become, and how frequently they have done things that are illegal and no one is enforcing the law with them, even beyond what is allowed under FISA and the Patriot Act. They think it is just about a few Al Qaeda terrorists, but it is about a lot more than that. If the Clintons were in the White House doing what Bush and Cheney were doing the Republicans would be in high dudgeon about it. Geuss what, they may be very soon because now that Bush-Cheney have set the precedents, the next President(s) will be sure and use it. "

" Nice job 'Glenroy'. How conveniently you have ignored the outing of our CIA agent during wartime and the lying to congress and the american people about the rational for our "war" against the Iragi people. As for "loon" your language speaks for itself. "

" Yesss... Let's give those bad old terrorists a big hug, then they'll be nice to us. "

" Excellent points, glenroy. Presidents have always had expanded powers in times of war. This case was a prime example of why this war has to be fought by the military and not in the courthouse... "

" glenroy: Do you have some sort of insider information that the reason that Padilla wasn't charged with anything related to the "dirty bomb" was fear of giving up our secrets or are you just assuming? Have you seen the evidence? Your statement that the reason Padilla was tried for far lesser crimes than advertised by Ashcroft upon arrest is national security fears and "anybody who paid any attention [would] know this," is far more correctly stated as being known by "anybody who thinks that everything the department of justice says will be free from exaggeration or untruth." Just like a poker player who wins a folded pot for a lower sum, no one can say what is in that player's hand without them showing it. "