NYT:

Surely the case of Maher Arar was a chance to show that those who countenanced torture must pay a price.

Malcolm Gladwell:

Free is just another price.

David Cole:

The courts have washed their hands of the Maher Arar affair, but that does not mean that it is resolved.

To the Obama administration, defending government officials from suit, regardless of the gravity of the allegations, is evidently more important than holding individuals responsible for complicity in torture.

Scott Shane:

The case of Yahya Wehelie illustrates the daunting challenge, both for people like Mr. Wehelie and for their FBI questioners, of proving that they pose no security threat.

The no-fly list gives the American authorities greater leverage in assessing travelers who are under suspicion, because to reverse the flying ban many are willing to undergo hours of questioning.

But sometimes the questioning concludes neither with criminal charges nor with permission to fly.

Dan Elliott and Chris Brummit:

Gary Faulkner, an American construction worker, has been detained in the mountains of Pakistan after authorities there found him carrying a sword, pistol and night-vision goggles on a solo mission to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden.

Scott Faulkner insisted his brother was on a rational mission.

Scott Faulkner:

He's as normal as you and I. He's just very passionate.

Johan de Kleer:

One passionate person is worth a thousand people who are just plodding along ...

Benjamin Wallace-Wells:

The best way to fight terrorists is to go at it not like G-men, with two-year assignments and query letters to the staff attorneys, but the way the terrorists do, with fury and the conviction that history will turn on the decisions you make -- as an obsession and as a life style.

As Normal As You And I