U.S. Citizens Blocked From Flying To U.S.
Most of you have read this story or a variant of it.
Most people seem to believe that the U.S. is preventing these men from returning home to the U.S. until they submit to allowing the FBI usurp their Constitutional rights. That may be true, but we don't know it is.
First, we do not know the FBI is requiring them to give up their rights (specifically, right to counsel, and other rights involving interrogation). The ACLU says so, but I wouldn't take their word for it, and think anyone a fool who does. Sorry. (However, if this is true, it's bad, and it is not acceptable.)
Second, we do not know they are being prevented from returning home. There is not one shred of evidence that suggests this (again, except for the word of the ACLU attorney, who actually lied in one story, saying they were under "threat of banishment", which is pretty clearly untrue, as that states they will be kicked out of the country, and there's been no such suggestion).
All the government says is they cannot fly into the country. There is no evidence they are being prevented from flying to another country and then driving into the U.S. Presumably, they would be detained for questioning at that point, but not prevented from entering.
Sure, the NY Times reporter says the feds "have prevented [them] from returning home to California from Pakistan unless they agree to be interviewed by the F.B.I." But it doesn't back up this statement, it doesn't give any reason for us to believe it, except for the paraphrase of the U.S. attorney who said they could not fly home.
Maybe they are being prevented from entering the country, not merely flying into the country. I welcome one shred of evidence suggesting that.
Most people seem to believe that the U.S. is preventing these men from returning home to the U.S. until they submit to allowing the FBI usurp their Constitutional rights. That may be true, but we don't know it is.
First, we do not know the FBI is requiring them to give up their rights (specifically, right to counsel, and other rights involving interrogation). The ACLU says so, but I wouldn't take their word for it, and think anyone a fool who does. Sorry. (However, if this is true, it's bad, and it is not acceptable.)
Second, we do not know they are being prevented from returning home. There is not one shred of evidence that suggests this (again, except for the word of the ACLU attorney, who actually lied in one story, saying they were under "threat of banishment", which is pretty clearly untrue, as that states they will be kicked out of the country, and there's been no such suggestion).
All the government says is they cannot fly into the country. There is no evidence they are being prevented from flying to another country and then driving into the U.S. Presumably, they would be detained for questioning at that point, but not prevented from entering.
Sure, the NY Times reporter says the feds "have prevented [them] from returning home to California from Pakistan unless they agree to be interviewed by the F.B.I." But it doesn't back up this statement, it doesn't give any reason for us to believe it, except for the paraphrase of the U.S. attorney who said they could not fly home.
Maybe they are being prevented from entering the country, not merely flying into the country. I welcome one shred of evidence suggesting that.
"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."
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