> It might also be true that the US has captured a few of
> the people who were involved in some way with that event.
> But if that is true, why not make a show trial out of them?
I think that part of the problem is that this kind of extra-constitutional gumshoe work has historically been the bailiwick of the CIA and their pals. Kind of a 60 year don't-ask-don't-tell that has been used forever and institutionalized in that organization after WWII. The People, when the target of such efforts was either Communists or small countries they'd never heard of, weren't likely to raise a stink about it. "All I care is that they accomplish the Goal" ...
But now, since there's been such a string of blatant and public lies about all the details of this so-called war, The People are interested.
The risk, of course, is stating clealy that this is the kind of thing that happens 24x7, SOP, and all that. Plus an un-doing of one of the biggest lies: that only Total, Unending War is the only reasonable posture against the threat.
I think this also explains part of why the military (which, for better or worse, actually has a rich tradition of law and honor, especially when it suits them) has made some grumblings about this kind of thing lately.
/jordan