Okay kids, this is again why rule of law is essential, and why torture, arbitrary imprisonment, “rendition” and all the rest of it should be (and actually IS) illegal. This is the money quote from the Washington Post article in today’s paper:
“The official said Masri was seized because his name was similar to that of a militant leader and because officials thought his passport was bogus.”
U.S. Admits Wrongful Detention, German Chancellor Says
They got the wrong guy, and his passport was 100% legit. But there’s an even more important item, in the Sunday edition’s more detailed story. It reads:
“Masri was held for five months largely because the head of the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center’s al Qaeda unit “believed he was someone else,” one former CIA official said. “She didn’t really know. She just had a hunch.”" (Wrongful Imprisonment: Anatomy of a CIA Mistake)
Let’s read that again, shall we? “She didn’t really know. She just had a hunch.”
A man is picked up and shipped off for months of torture, based on one incompetent bureaucrat’s “hunch.” Still think you’re safe, Mr. John Smith? Sounds to me like all it’ll take is the appearance of a Mr. John al-Smith on some terrorist list somewhere, and you could suddenly find yourself drugged, wearing a diaper, on your way to North Africa for months of waterboarding and testicular electrocution. If you’re lucky, they’ll let you go eventually, dropping you off on some dirt road in rural Albania. If not…well, you end up dead, so sorry.
Rule of Law is there for the terrorists and other bad people, yes — so that it’ll be there for the rest of us, too.
Pingback: The Theroxylandr in Flame » Another attack on civil liberties