The Bush administration cannot hold an alleged enemy combatant indefinitely without charging him with a crime, a federal appeals court has ruled. This is a victory for due process, the American people, and the Constitution itself.
However, I take issue with the headline that Yahoo! News places on the Associated Press story: “Court rules in favor of enemy combatant.” This is a misleading headline that immediately makes the reader have a negative view of the defendant. I know that the Bush administration has deemed Ali al-Marri to be an “enemy combatant,” but he is still innocent until proven guilty in a fair trial. Just because the government views him as an enemy combatant does not automatically prove that he is actively hostile towards the United States. And the fact that the court ruled in favor of due process is more relevant from a journalistic standpoint.
And there’s another piece of good news. In a victory for common sense, Colin Powell has said that he would close Gitmo immediately if he were in charge.
