David Schmidtz at Cato discusses which forms of inequality matter, i.e., which deserve intervention and redress. Replies from Peter Singer, Tom G. Palmer, and Jacob Hacker will be forthcoming. The essay is excerpted from his new book, The Elements of Justice.

The key philosophical point: that there is a prior moral question about which inequalities are ours (i.e., society’s) to arrange, lies outside the specific scope of this essay’s focus.

Hat tip to Glenn Reynolds.

ISN# 581 – 21 pages -Detainee: S (Pakistani)

Reasons for Detention:

He was a member of the Taliban, and held a high-ranking position as a military judge, in which position he tortured, maimed, and murdered Afghani nationals.

Detainee’s position:

He says that he has previously also been accused of being Deputy Foreign Minister and of being a prison guard in Kandahar named Bacha. He says he once went to Afghanistan for two days to attend a funeral. He says he is a chicken farmer. He also worked part-time providing religious instruction a local school.

In January 2002, Pakistani authorities came to his house looking for looted artifacts. He had none, and they took him to the police station, where they demanded bribes. He would not pay, so they put him in jail for 36 days, then identified him as a person they were looking for, who had a similar name. His testimony is supported by letters from a brother and a son in Pakistan.

DZ Conclusions:
He seems to have evidence confirming his identity as different from that of the Taliban judge. No evidence that he is that person he is accused of being is cited. His statements of not seeing weapons in many years seem to be an exaggeration, and may possibly have been taken by the tribunal as impeaching his entire testimony. Reading this transcript, however, I find no real evidence against him, and am obliged to suppose that he is not the person he is accused of being. I would release him.

ISN# 068 – 19 pages – Detainee: X (not named) (Saudi)

Reasons for Detention:

Associated with Jama’at al Tabligh (an Islamic missionary organization commonly used as an Al Qaeda cover). Captured by Pakistani forces with group of Al Qaeda mujahedin. His name was on a list of Al Qaeda mujehedin seized from an Al Qaeda safehouse in Pakistan.

Detainee’s position:

Denies being a member of Jama’at al Tabligh. Says he was arrested at the airport travelling from Afghanistan to Pakistan with no passport.

He says that he is a high school graduate and works for the chamber of commerce. He claimed to have been on a one month summer vacation devoted to a personal mission correcting Islamic errors (which he later extended). He started in Dubai, and then proceeded to Pakistan for three months, then to Afghanistan for one month. He says his passport was stolen. Claimed complete ignorance of Al Qaeda and Taliban.

JDZ Conclusions:

This detainee has a great deal more to say than the others. But his story of readily expandable vacations, random travel decisions, and ignorance of politics is not compelling. What is a Saudi doing in Afghanistan at the time of the US invasion, other than being a jihadi?

There is a possibility that he is telling the truth, but some actual evidence and the weight of the circumstances are completely against him. I would not release before the conclusion of hostilities.

SN# 342 – 5 pages – Detainee: M (Saudi Arabian)

Reasons for Detention:

M was arrested by Pakistani police in Quetta 25 November 2001. M. was identified as a member of Al Qaeda by several witnesses. He is reported to have been a member of the security team assigned to Al-Nashri, Al Qaeda Persian Gulf commander linked to the attack to the USS Cole. He is reported to have been the manager of the Al Qaeda guesthouse in Kabul. He is reported to have been on a Taliban airplane carrying fighters to Northern Afghanistan. He was identified as an Al Qaeda member by a former guard at Osama bin Laden’s complex in Kandahar.

From December 2000 to November 2001, he traveled extensively. His passport records his visiting Saudi Arabia (several times), Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Syria, and Malaysia. A Malaysia stamp was used by Al Qaeda in passport forgery used to eliminated evidence of travel to Pakistan and Afghanistan. His passport stamp record conflicts with information reported by Saudi Arabia.

Detainee’s position:

Denies everything. Declines to take Islamic oath.

JDZ Conclusions:

Clearly an Al Qaeda terrorist. I would not consider releasing him for a moment. He is probably an accomplice in capital crimes.

ISN# 965 – 9 pages – Detainee: H (Afghan)

Reasons for Detention:

H was captured by US forces, when stopped at a checkpoint. H was wearing an olive-green field jacket and was with a group of persons observed caching weapons recently used against US forces. Medical examination post-capture detected hearing impairment likely to result from firing weapons.

H was allegedly raised and employed by a low level Taliban commander named Mullah Mohammed Shah.

Detainee’s position:

Denies everything. Asserts that he is a farmer. Has never seen the Taliban. Does not even know what a rifle or a pistol is.

JDZ Conclusions:

It is evident that H was detained on suspicion and has been held on the basis of not implausible circumstantial evidence. It is probable that he did commit hostile acts against US forces. He was captured by US forces. He is plausibly connected to the Taliban. I found it impossible to form any opinion on the truth or falsehood of his denials, until we got to his denials of even knowing what a rifle or a pistol is.

Q: Did you ever use a rifle or a pistol or anything like that?

A: I have not used it. If I do not know it, how is it possible that I have used it?

Here H strains credulity to the breaking point. It is not possible to believe that any male rural Afghan does not know what weapons, particularly rifles and pistols, are. H has persuaded me that he is lying.

H is clearly a rural Afghan, who probably did fire on US forces in defense of his local authorities. He seems to be an insignificant foot soldier type. I think he should be released as soon as there was no organized hostile force he could rejoin, as long as he takes a credible oath to keep the peace. Evidently, US authorities believe organized hostile forces still exist, and in those circumstances, I believe they are justified in continuing to detain him.

JDZ, author/publisher of the Never Yet Melted Blog, will be participating in the bloggers’ study of Gitmo documents initiated by Edward Morrissey of the Captain’s Quarters blog to determine the validity of the Mark Denbeaux and Joshua W. Denbeaux Profile Study of 517 Guantanamo Bay Detainees which concludes:

1. Fifty-five percent (55%) of the detainees are not determined to have committed any hostile acts against the United States or its coalition allies.

2. Only 8% of the detainees were characterized as al Qaeda fighters. Of the remaining detainees, 40% have no definitive connection with al Qaeda at all and 18% are have no definitive affiliation with either al Qaeda or the Taliban.

3. The Government has detained numerous persons based on mere affiliations with a large number of groups that in fact, are not on the Department of Homeland Security terrorist watchlist. Moreover, the nexus between such a detainee and such organizations varies considerably. Eight percent are detained because they are deemed “fighters for;” 30% considered “members of;” a large majority – 60% – are detained merely because they are “associated with” a group or groups the Government asserts are terrorist organizations. For 2% of the prisoners, a nexus to any terrorist group is not identified by the Government.

4. Only 5% of the detainees were captured by United States forces. 86% of the detainees were arrested by either Pakistan or the Northern Alliance and turned over to United States custody. This 86% of the detainees captured by Pakistan or the Northern Alliance were handed over to the United States at a time in which the United States offered large bounties for capture of suspected enemies.

5. Finally, the population of persons deemed not to be enemy combatants – mostly Uighers – are in fact accused of more serious allegations than a great many persons still deemed to be enemy combatants.

I am currently reading through the cases in set number 22.

——————-

Mr. Morrissey’s initial call for the study is here.

Ralph Peters mocks the other MSM Big Lie of the past week.

I’M trying. I’ve been trying all week. The other day, I drove another 30 miles or so on the streets and alleys of Baghdad. I’m looking for the civil war that The New York Times declared. And I just can’t find it.

Maybe actually being on the ground in Iraq prevents me from seeing it. Perhaps the view’s clearer from Manhattan. It could be that my background as an intelligence officer didn’t give me the right skills.

And riding around with the U.S. Army, looking at things first-hand, is certainly a technique to which The New York Times wouldn’t stoop in such an hour of crisis.

Kevin Aylward comments on the Associated Press’s retraction following the blogosphere’s demolition of its resurrected Hurricane Katrina news meme. It was just another case of news manipulation in the cause of Bush-bashing.

The Washington Post tries a little pre-emption in tomorrow’s edition:

The Bush administration, seeking to limit leaks of classified information, has launched initiatives targeting journalists and their possible government sources. The efforts include several FBI probes, a polygraph investigation inside the CIA and a warning from the Justice Department that reporters could be prosecuted under espionage laws.

In recent weeks, dozens of employees at the CIA, the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies have been interviewed by agents from the FBI’s Washington field office, who are investigating possible leaks that led to reports about secret CIA prisons and the NSA’s warrantless domestic surveillance program, according to law enforcement and intelligence officials familiar with the two cases.

Numerous employees at the CIA, FBI, Justice Department and other agencies also have received letters from Justice prohibiting them from discussing even unclassified issues related to the NSA program, according to sources familiar with the notices. Some GOP lawmakers are also considering whether to approve tougher penalties for leaking.

In a little-noticed case in California, FBI agents from Los Angeles have already contacted reporters at the Sacramento Bee about stories published in July that were based on sealed court documents related to a terrorism case in Lodi, according to the newspaper.

Some media watchers, lawyers and editors say that, taken together, the incidents represent perhaps the most extensive and overt campaign against leaks in a generation, and that they have worsened the already-tense relationship between mainstream news.

Fiat justitia, ruat coelum.[Let justice be done, though the Heavens fall.]

Eric at Classical Values identifies the typical maneuver employed by statists to expand the definition of crime:

Existing laws don’t “work”! New laws are needed! I’m confused about what seems to be a recurrent pattern in this country. When there are laws against something, and these laws are not enforced, instead of enforcing the existing laws, there’s always a demand for new laws.Tougher laws.

It’s as if there’s some magical belief system that the tougher the law is, the stronger it is, and the more likely that human conduct will be deterred. Enforcement of existing laws never seems to enter anyone’s mind.

The point here is not whether I happen to agree with the laws. It’s just a recurrent pattern. The drug laws started as a tax measure in 1914, and ever since, they have become ever more draconian. Examples aren’t really needed, although the latest trend (now that they’ve run out of drugs to make illegal) is to criminalize precursor ingredients. So Americans are no longer allowed to buy cold medicine over the counter — all because it might be used to manufacture illegal drugs. What’s next? Glassware which might be used to cook drugs…

The pattern seems to be pass laws, ignore them, wait until the problem is huge, then pass draconian laws, plus new laws against conduct which resulted from the previous climate of non-enforcement.

It has long been illegal for felons to buy or possess guns, and to buy, sell, or transfer a gun to a felon. But felons buy guns all the time illegally. Which means that we need a crackdown on what? On perfectly legal purchases of guns by ordinary citizens.

Add to this the trend of sending in SWAT teams to perform routine law enforcement, and it’s fair to wonder whether the goal is to create a police state.

I hate police states — and I’m just wondering whether neglecting to enforce the law is one of the precursor ingredients.

Pruned, a landscape gardening blog, offers a look at topiary in a petri dish, bacteria pruned by the application of antiseptics. And this interesting offering is a follow-up to an earlier feature on the same subject.

Bob Weir remembers the tactics used by the corrupt majority of the New York Police Department to compel those inclined toward honesty to conform. A must read.