GZ....with all respect, please read up on the Padilla case. Now, this guy was a Chicago gang member, so he is not a good boy....but when he was pulled off the plane and detained as enemy combatant there was allegations that he was involved in a dirty bomb plot.....Forget Probable Cause....the government has no duty to prove probable cause in dealing with enemy combatants, at least not for a long, long time. Padilla, (again, not a good guy...but a terrorist???) was held for four years without legal counsel, access to the judicial system, etc. No right to face his accusers. Nothing.
He is an American Citizen. An American Citizen.
After the stink got too bad, they transferred him to the brig in South Carolina....now A Republican appointed Federal Judge is raising major questions about any of the claims involving this guy. The dirty bomb thing seems to be dropping away, as is any evidence that he was going to blow up buildings with natural gas. Five years later he sits....and the case seems to be crumbling around him.
Now, my point. What if you produced one of your movies that somebody in the government decided was "incendiary" or was helping the terrorists by its theme. Or it had something people claimed was classified in it. You, of course, are innocent...bad luck, bad karma....whatever. they wisk you away in the dead of night. You, an American Citizen, are held without rights or counsel for five years.....because someone thought your movie made you an enemy combatant.
Farfetched? Maybe.....impossible...let's hope so.
Follow Padilla's case. He is not a good man, but his past offenses as a member of a street gang is not what he has been held for five years about.
Let's not be too sure about being sure the government really knows which American citizens should be scooped up without any constitutional rights... |
