"Under the Justice Department's new definition of "enemy combatant" which won the enthusiastic approval of the president and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld anyone defined as an "enemy combatant," very much including American citizens, can be held indefinitely by the government, without charges, a hearing, or a lawyer. In short, incommunicado. "

Hentoff is explaining what might happen, not what has occured, or what must occur. However, I don't think his worst nightmare is out of the question given the law. We really are at the mercy of executive's reservation with respect to this, and I think its a bad situation. Even if Bush uses such authority responsibly, it is inevitable that future administrations will slaken into a broader application of this new ability.

Public outcry put the brakes on TIPs. I'd like to see it put the brakes on this too. I don't see any reason why the government would have trouble getting a court to approve the detention of individuals involved in terrorist conspiracies. We need court oversight to make sure that they ARE in fact involved in terrorist conspiracies, and not just someone the administration doesn't like or wants to quiet.