Due Process Vanishes in Thin Air

We have a goal: more security. If in the pursuit of that goal by those we task to administer or administrate our public offices we do err, does that mean that our rights are diminished? No. It simply means that someone made a mistake, blundered, came up with a plan that didn't work etc.

You obviously didn't get my point, so I'll spell it out for you. It's not the fact that the administrators goofed that compromises our rights; it's the fact that our rights are subject to their gaffes in the first place. If they want to think this guy's a terrorist, fine. But what goes on in their minds isn't justification for them to harass him. If they want to arrest him, let them get a warrant. If they want to punish him, let them get a trial. But they've decided they no longer need to worry about such trifles. The fact that they have this kind of power over his life - and by extension all of our lives - is itself a major political-rights issue, of equal or greater magnitude to those political-rights issues that spurred the War of Independence.

At least not as long as we have courts and ballot boxes and other means of redress or relief.

You mean, like due process and that kind of stuff? Due process does not mean that government can restrict your rights, and then tell you that if you don't like it, you can go to court. Due process means that they have to go to court if they want to justify taking away your rights.

The fact that they have this kind of power over his life - and by extension all of our lives - is itself a major political-rights issue, of equal or greater magnitude to those political-rights issues that spurred the War of Independence.
The "power" they have "over his life" (as you put it) reduces to misidentifying him and releasing him, again and again. We expect our law enforcement and other security services to look for certain people--this is what they do. In this case they may be acting stupidly, wasting this man's time as well as thier own in some Kafka-esque farce, but no ones due process has been undermined in any way. In fact, quite the contrary: this man is released every bloody time. This is simply not a due process or civil rights issue. This is a "please determine what you're doing wrong and correct it," administration issue.

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