[http://www.lewrockwell.com/elkins/elkins71.html, The Scare Scam]
On Thu 13 Jun, Jeff Elkins quoted as saying (in the above article):
> The real issue, which as usual hasn't been addressed by the mass media,
> is the fact that Padilla has been in custody for a month and we are just
> now being informed of his role as a mastermind of international
> terrorism and a putative expert in nuclear technology. Why the delay?
A good question -- he was arrested on May 8th. The FT gives the following explanation: that the headline resulted when he was suddenly moved from civilian to military custody. And that step was undertaken because otherwise he might have gone free precisely because the government doesn't yet have a case that will stand up in court:
<quote>
The sudden move from civilian to military jurisdiction -- which triggered the public revelation of Mr Padilla's case -- was undertaken to avoid having him appear at a secret hearing in front of a civilian judge. The government's case against him was not yet complete but officials feared his refusal to co-operate with them would simply outrun the clock. They chose to switch him to military detention rather than risk being forced to turn loose someone they strongly believe to be a threat to domestic security. That move leaves the suspect in legal limbo, however, and is open to challenge, making it unlikely that US officials will be able to detain him indefinately.
<unquote>
This seems like irremovable clash between the war on terrorism and civil liberities. The WoT presumes that the government should be allowed to pump anyone who they think might have information for as long as it takes. And this includes people who can't be shown to have broken the law themselves. In the civil liberties tradition, this is the very definition of arbitrary detention. And that's without going into the issue of the legality or morality of the techniques of pumping, which is a second issue.
Original FT article (from Wednesday, June 12, by Deborah McGregor) at
http://search.ft.com/search/article.html?id=020612000467&query= %22outrun+the+clock%22+and+padilla&vsc_appId=quickSearch&of fset=0&resultsToShow=10&vsc_subjectConcept=&vsc_companyCo ncept=&state=More&vsc_publicationGroups=TOPWFT&searchCat= -1