Guilty Until Proven

CBS News - 60 Minutes ^ | April 6, 2003 | Bob Simon

[The Red Zone]

(CBS) More than a thousand people were detained as suspected terrorists after 9/11, and none has been charged with being a terrorist so far. Three such detainees tell correspondent Bob Simon their stories.

Hady Omar came to the United States from Egypt three and a half years ago. He lives in Arkansas with his wife Candy, an Arkansas native, and their daughter Jasmine.

He’s never been charged with any criminal offense, but he says he was held in custody in a maximum-security prison for 73 days because he is a Muslim.

[expatguy]

Overstaying a visa doesn't deserve the third degree in a dungeon (or as close as we can get to that for a court to excuse it somehow).

If you overstay your visa where I live you are arrested, put in jail and then deported. Simple as that.

Why these people think they can violate immigration laws is beyond me.

[dts32041]

I vot deport on a raft poingting to the west, with brad and water.

[m1911]

Brad who?

[jude24]

The thing is, I'm usually what most consider a "law and order" conservative.

[jude24]

For a lot of them, jail is better than their homelands. Especially american jails -- 3 hot meals a day, cable tv, education, etc.

[cyborg]

You still are. There's nothing wrong with pointing out excessiveness. Sometimes FReepers have a problem with that. I think in some people's minds when you do point out the obvious, that's like giving license. Not true. It was WRONG what they did.

[JaimeD2]

I agree with you for the most part, but I'd be satisfied if there were merely more judicial oversight. If a judge says that a certain person is a threat to national security and that a speedy trial would exacerbate that threat, I'd be willing to let the trial be delayed - but only for as long as the judge allowed. I sometimes find it hard to think that I'm even writing these words, but these are extraordinary times we live in, and these are extraordinary threats. Despite that, I'm not comfortable with an executive branch which thinks that it can hold anybody without any judicial say in the matter.