Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[Tom K]

Moussaoui - What if he was an American citizen? Do you think the FBI should have let him go? Do you think he would have hung around while the Feds collected enough evidence to charge him?

I'm not saying the material witness laws are ideal, or that they should be abused. There is clearly void in the legal tools the Justice department has at their disposal to detain possible terrorists or terrorist collaborators. The judicial committee should get their rear in gear and try to find a solution.

Take Osama Awadallah for example - The FBI found his first name and old telephone number in a car used by one of the Sept. 11 hijackers. The government says he lied when asked during a polygraph exam if he had advance knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks. He testified before a grand jury he had met two of the hijackers, but could remember the name of only one, Nawaf Al-Hazmi. He denied knowing another hijacker, Khalid Al-Mihdar, even after the government produced a college examination book in which Mr. Awadallah had written "Khalid."

Shouldn't the FBI have some mechanism to detain this guy until all facts are sorted out?