Wrong 'terrorists' nabbed

[Kadie]

Wrong 'terrorists' nabbed

Jon Carroll
Thursday, August 26, 2004

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In a story last week, the New York Times reported on the plight of a man named Abdullah al-Kidd, an American citizen and former football star who lives in a small bachelor apartment in Las Vegas and moves furniture for a living.

Before the government got hold of him, he had a scholarship to study Islamic religion and culture. He was also living with his wife and daughter. Now he has no scholarship and his wife has left him. His taxpayer dollars at work.

In March 2003, he was arrested as a "material witness" in an unspecified terrorist crime. In June of this year, after 16 months in jail with no charges ever filed, he was released and told that he was free to get on with his life. No explanation was forthcoming. No one even said, "Oops."

Said Kidd: "My reputation was destroyed. I keep getting no's from jobs as though I were an ex-felon. And I'm not an ex-felon." It is hard to explain to employers why 16 months in prison should not be viewed as a bad thing. It's the old smoke-and-fire deal. The existence of the Justice Department's smoke- blowing machine is not widely recognized.

It's not that the Justice Department is out of control, exactly. It's that it wants to be out of control. It longs for the day when it can act autonomously. It wants to destroy our precious freedoms in order to protect our precious freedoms.

more...
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/08/26/DDGIJ7OCNC1.DTL

[babylon_system]

1. Continuing persecution of Muslims in America

He should live up to the Feds' expectations and go postal on their azzes.

[enough]

2. Appalling story.

Thanks for the post.

snip>

Remember when you were innocent until proved guilty? Those were gentler times. Now you are innocent unless someone somewhere thinks that maybe you know something about terrorism, in which case you can be thrown in jail until it pleases someone to let you out. You're technically still innocent, of course. The Constitution is very clear on the matter. You're just in jail.

snip>