Legality of Muslims detained by US

David Tell, writing in the (ultra-?)conservative Weekly Standard, examines with precision the claim by many that Bush and Ashcroft are overreaching legal bounds through the dentention of many Muslim foreign nationals. The examination was prompted by articles such as Kangaroo Courts by alleged conservative William Safire. Tell pierces these claims quite clearly in the light of Supreme Court precedents (Zadvydas v. Davis and Reno v. Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee) and applies them in frustrating detail to a current deportation case the Feds are pursuing against a top agent of terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Mazen Al-Najjar has been in the United States illegally (his visa expired) since 1985 but due to extensive court maneuvering by his attorneys he is still in America. His attorneys are allowed under US law, amazingly, to argue that since the US has shown Al-Najjar is a terrorist he cannot be deported and must be granted political asylum because “few foreign countries would even consider accepting extradition of such a character, and any that might would very likely persecute him.” Just f-ing amazing! I generally judge myself to be more liberal than conservative but even more enamored of logic than either and this just blows me away.