finally, the des moines register seems to be getting it. from today's paper:

It happened routinely in communist and fascist dictatorships. Government agents swept people off the streets, took them into custody for interrogation and kept them confined for years without ever having to charge them with a crime or prove they did anything wrong.

Such things were never supposed to happen in America. That was the difference between us and them.

Except such things have been happening in America since 9/11 - to this country's everlasting shame.

Finally, America's courts are getting around to checking the abuse of power by the executive branch in imprisoning American citizens without trial.

The latest affirmation of the Constitution is a no-nonsense ruling by federal District Judge Henry Floyd in South Carolina in the case of Jose Padilla, an American citizen held without charges since May 2002. The judge gave the government 45 days to either charge Padilla with a crime or set him free.

Padilla was arrested at O'Hare airport in Chicago after returning from Pakistan. The government declared that Padilla was plotting with al-Qaida to set off a "dirty bomb" in the United States, but he was not formally accused of any crime. He was designated an "enemy combatant" and whisked away without trial to a military prison in South Carolina.

The government will appeal the ruling, but the finding is so obvious that it's hard to see how the government could win on appeal. In the United States of America, citizens cannot be deprived of liberty without due process of law. Period.

That is the difference between us and them.