The fact that the US government lists Nelson Mandela as a terrorist (even if Rice is embarrased about it) says all you need to know about the absurdity of Bush's approach.

Great piece.

Right or wrong, like it or not, you cannot expect the average working American to grasp the nuance contained in this complicated legal subject and subsequently sympathize with the foreign nationals involved. I'm no flag-waving jingoist, but I still had trouble following the Byzantine narrative that was apparently intended to make me worry about Consitutional rights contained in this article. A couple of statements that jumped out at me from a cursory reading:

"the U.S. government charged Al-Buthe and Seda with tax fraud in connection with a $180,000 donation they made in 1999 to an Islamic charity in Chechnya."

Sorry, but I have to worry about paying my rent and buying groceries. No sympathy for Chechnyan rebels here.

"Al-Haramain's lawyers deny these charges, too, and have produced affidavits from the governments of Saudi Arabia and Russia explaining that the organization that received the donations was a legitimate charity. "

Well, if you can't trust affidavits from the governments of Saudi Arabia and Russia, what can you trust?

"(The steady stream of visitors was all male -- during my five days in Saudi Arabia, I didn't meet a single woman.) "

Natch. Women are barely considered human in Saudi Arabia. But let's just relegate that disconcerting fact to a quick parenthetical observation and breeze along, shall we?

"It was hard to imagine Al-Buthe as a terrorist. In conversation, he frequently denounces al-Qaida and expresses sorrow over the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. "

This is a painfully naive statement.

"The powers were first used against individuals by President Clinton, when his National Security Council designated several Palestinian and Israeli opponents of the Camp David agreements as terrorist supporters."

Ah. I eagerly await the Salon article denouncing Bill Clinton's attack on civil liberties. After all, American partisan politics have nothing to do with any of this, right? We're all just worried about timeless concepts of civic justice. Riiight.

"Bauermeister looked out the window for a moment before adding, "This is a really dark era we're in right now." "

True indeed. I'm glad I live in America.

You don't worry at all for the millions of men and women locked up in American prisons now on bullshit charges, vague evidence and criminally insane 3 strikes laws. These guys here get more press and more support than 10,000 Americans tossed in the trash every month. So all I can suggest is you get your asses up off the couch, join their defense team, protest the Oregon such and such, give them money and stop whining. You've made your decision. Press Worth Arabs uber alles. Enjoy.

But if you possess this skill called "empathy," you can imagine what it would be like to have all your assets frozen and all your former friends thinking you are a terrorist, and not knowing how "they" determined you were a terrorist, or what you can do to stop being called a terrorist.

If you don't possess that skill, do an internet search for "Why is due process important?" or something like that, and educate yourself.

"But if you possess this skill called "empathy," you can imagine what it would be like to have all your assets frozen and all your former friends thinking you are a terrorist, and not knowing how "they" determined you were a terrorist, or what you can do to stop being called a terrorist."

Nobody named in this article has had ALL their assets frozen, nor do ALL their friends think they are terrorists.

Soliman Hamd Al Buthe, the attempted object of this article's "empathy," is a foreign national and an official of one of the most repressive and misogynistic governments in the world- that of Saudi Arabia.

As the article clearly states, neither al Buthe or his associate, Pete Seda, have been charged with any crime. Instead, the funds of a particular charity with which they are associated, which has apparently been connected with large contributions to Islamic groups in other countries and regions such as Chechnya, have been "frozen."

Is this unfair? Possibly. As an American citizen, I don't know how fair or Constitutionally legal it is that the US government can "freeze" or simply outright seize my monetary assets over thing like unpaid parking tickets, IRS payments, or any number of civil "infractions." Frankly, I would much rather see THOSE issues addressed before I can find it in my heart to start caring about the whereabouts of a small fraction of the fortune controlled by the Saudi Arabian Mayor of Riyadh and his charity.

I also found this quote disturbing:

"A former Ashland resident with a Jewish background who had converted to Islam, Gartenstein-Ross worked at Al-Haramain in Oregon from 1999 to 2000 and wrote a book based on his experience, "My Year Inside Radical Islam." He focused primarily on inflammatory language in the Korans distributed by the foundation and what he claimed was Seda’s generic support for Islamic jihad. But he has never produced any evidence of terrorist connections at Al-Haramain."

Why was it necessary to mention the "Jewish background" of Ross? And how does Salon know that this former employee of Al-Haramain (and, subsequently, al Buthe and Seda) did not provide the government with real evidence of the organization's material support of international terrorist groups, if certain pieces of evidence associated with this case are classified?

"Al-Buthe, a Saudi national who traveled frequently to the United States in the late 1990s, today works as the general manager of the Riyadh Municipality Environmental Health Department. His lives comfortably...."

"Soliman Al-Buthe is a tall, engaging man with a long beard who wears traditional kaffiyehs and tears around Riyadh in a GM Tahoe SUV...."

"When I arrived in Riyadh one night in mid-March after a five-hour flight from London, Al-Buthe, accompanied by his Portland attorney, Tom Nelson, met me at the airport. He whisked us away in his SUV, all the while chattering on his cellphone or shouting jokes..."

"One thing is clear about Al-Buthe: He was part of one of the largest overseas missionary movements in modern times. Since the 1980s, Saudi Arabia has invested billions of dollars around the world to popularize Wahhabism, the strict form of Sunni Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia and endorsed by its monarchy. Much of this money -- estimated at over $75 billion in total -- has gone to charities such as Al-Haramain, which built hundreds of mosques, schools, health clinics and orphanages in war-torn places like Somalia and Bosnia, as well as in developed countries such as the United States and Britain."

So al Buthe is living comfortably in his home country of Saudi Arabia, "tearing around" in a Tahoe SUV and chattering on a cellphone, enjoying the fruits of his proselytizing on behalf a religion that openly preaches the inferiority and oppression of women.

Explain to me why, as a working-class American who can not afford of the creature comforts al Buthe does, I am supposed to care about his supposed Constitutional rights? He is not even an American citizen. Nor is he being held by any American agency. And neither is Seda.