On "dirty bomber"

The indications are that, as often in the past, the Bush Administration is overselling its latest intelligence coup in the war against terror. There still seems only the sketchiest of circumstantial evidence to link Abdullah al-Muhajir, the alleged "dirty bomber", with a terrorist atrocity in the United States.

After he had spent almost a month in custody, the U.S. authorities, it would seem, found themselves unable to charge him with any offense, and so have simply decided to detain him indefinitely under the catch-all category of being an "enemy combatant," effectively a prisoner of war.

But even if al-Muhajir had been caught red-handed leaving a suitcase containing Semtex and rods of cobalt 50 outside the White House, even that would not justify the denial of basic human liberties that we have witnessed in this case. Even war criminals deserve a trial. It is yet another example of the inconsistent, illogical and capricious application of "justice" to those who have found themselves hoovered up by the United States' war on terror.

-- The Independent, London