WASHINGTON -- There is a "very real potential" that al-Qaeda will strike again on U.S. soil, warns Attorney General John Ashcroft. Which makes it even more difficult to criticize the Bush administration's efforts to combat terrorism. But while the U.S. Constitution is not a suicide pact, it also means nothing unless it applies in difficult, unpopular circumstances -- like the case of Jose Padilla.
Several groups, ranging from the conservative Rutherford Institute to the leftwing People for the American Way and the libertarian Cato Institute, have filed a joint "friend of the court" brief in federal appeals court to defend Padilla's right to an attorney. The Defense Department is holding Padilla in isolation, after President George W. Bush designated him an "enemy combatant."
Fighting a decentralized terrorist organization with cells in scores of nations isn't easy. And one can't rely on Queensberry rules in fighting people willing to hijack airplanes and fly them into buildings. Thus, whatever the criticism of the imprisonment of nearly 700 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, they are "enemy combatants" and are not entitled to U.S. constitutional protections.