Bungling 'terror'

The LATimes editorial on the unamerican detentions and 'tribunals' is worth a read:

Saddam Hussein is getting fairer legal treatment than the U.S. citizens whom the Bush administration has deemed "enemy combatants." After all, he has a lawyer to represent him in his war-crimes trial — a whole legal team, in fact. Also, charges have been filed against him, and he has already faced a judge. That's more than alleged dirty-bomb plotter Jose Padilla can say.

Even some Bush administration officials now acknowledge that the strong-arm tactics they adopted three years ago to catch and prosecute terror suspects have backfired. Last week, conceding it had no case, the government simply released Yaser Esam Hamdi, an American citizen, rather than obey the U.S. Supreme Court's order that he be allowed to challenge his long imprisonment. The government's case against a Syrian-born U.S. airman accused of spying collapsed last week as well, and even Pentagon officials now admit that the military tribunals that began last month are so flawed they tarnish U.S. credibility.

Read it all at link.