I fully understand what you are saying Dowaco and the risks that individuals (potentiially) pose to the general public.
To imprison someone for two, three, four years or indefinitely without trial and without any reasonable chance of release goes against everything that I understand democracy & freedom to be.
It is extremely dangerous for governments and security services to choose when and which human rights should be upheld. The right to be innocent until found guilty and to be able to defend yourself in a court, whether civil or military, is at the core of everything the free world stands for. Without it we are failing society.
At the end of the WWII it would not have been justified to execute summarily criminals of war without having a trial first. Similarly, when Saddam was captured it was the belief of many people around the world that he was guilty of being behind many illegal killings but it was also understood that it would be wrong to sentence without a trial.
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I feel that there may be individuals who are being wrongly held. The reason is over-reaction to the terrorist actions of 9/11. But I do not want to see us go back to the state of vigillence we had in the previous decade, so I have no problem with holding suspects and suspending habeas corpus.
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It is never the right time to suspend human rights.