Not So Tough on Terror While acting all tough-assed on American citizen Jose Padilla, and in classic Ashcroft fashion, leaking information as to why they hold him all while depriving him of basic representation rights, they release to Syria a guy who seems pretty clearly to warrant prosecution. As the AP says:

Nabil al-Marabh, once imprisoned as the No. 27 man on the FBI (news - web sites)'s list of must-capture terror suspects, is free again. He's free despite telling a Jordanian informant he planned to die a martyr by driving a gasoline truck into a New York City tunnel, turning it sideways, opening its fuel valves and having an al-Qaida operative shoot a flare to ignite a massive explosion. Free despite telling the FBI he had trained on rifles and rocket propelled grenades at militant camps in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and after admitting he sent money to a former roommate convicted of trying to blow up a hotel in Jordan. Free despite efforts by prosecutors in Detroit and Chicago to indict him on charges that could have kept him in prison for years. Those indictments were rejected by the Justice Department (news - web sites) in the name of protecting intelligence. Even two judges openly questioned al-Marabh's terror ties. The Bush administration in January deported al-Marabh to Syria — his home and a country the U.S. government long has regarded as a sponsor of terrorism. The quiet end to al-Marabh's case provides a stark contrast to other cases in which the Bush administration has held suspects without lawyers as enemy combatants. It also contrasts with the terms FBI agents used to describe al-Marabh in internal documents obtained by The Associated Press.

What the hell, was the guy a Snake-Handler or something?