U.S. Joins USSR, East Germany, China and North Korea

The Supreme Court today allowed the administration to withhold the names and whereabouts of hundreds of people seized in the United States by the government in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

Those other countries in my headline also allowed - or do allow - the secret arrest of citizens or residents without judicial review. Is this what BushCo's War on Terra' has brought us to? Are these the countries with whom we want the world and historians of the future to associate us?

That this vital, constitutionally important case was decided in such an egregious manner should be an affront to all citizens.

I am not - to head off the trolls - saying that the information being sought on detainees should be released without review, but such broad-based denial of rights and the lack of transparency of government actions are monstrous.

"It's the first time in history that the government has arrested people in secret," said Kate Martin, who represented the Center for National Security studies in challenging the government. "We had hoped that the court would look at the unprecedented and serious first amendment issues here . . . We have 200 years of law and tradition saying that arrests are public . . . We do not have secret arrests."

Apparently we do have secret arrests now.

Congratulations to al Qaeda; you've moved our government another step closer to an oligarchic theocracy; another step closer to destroying our way of life.

NOTE: all quotes above from this article in the Washington Post on-line.