The 1990s contained a prelude to the constant threat of terrorism. In 1993, the World Trade Center was the target of a bomb. In 1998, two U.S. embassies in East Africa. In both cases, suspects were apprehended, sometimes extradited, charged, tried and found guilty. The American judicial system found the suspects guilty in both cases and meted out sentences to fit the crime.

Even with the appalling events of last September, nothing has changed so drastically that the same legal system that was able to bring these terrorists to justice should now be rendered obsolete. Apparently no one told this to the Bush administration, which has systematically overlooked some of the oldest and most basic rights enjoyed by citizens and those in this country in a zealous but misplaced effort to protect the freedoms we cherish.

In the case of Abdullah al-Muhajir, the Bill of Rights has been scrapped for a lean and calculating approach. Muhajir, born Jose Padilla, is the center of the federal “dirty bomb” dragnet cast in our ongoing war against terrorism. The Brooklyn-born U.S. citizen was on his way from Zurich to Chicago when he was arrested on a material witness warrant and has since been held by the government without being charged of a crime and without access to legal counsel. He is currently incarcerated in a military brig off the shore of Charleston, South Carolina.

The government is using a vintage precedent from World War II that related to Nazi saboteurs who were tried by a military tribunal and executed to justify the detention of Muhajir. However, this time, the United States is not engaged in a declared war against another sovereign nation.

John Walker Lindh, the “American Taliban,” was captured in Afghanistan fighting against U.S. forces and is not considered a military combatant. He will stand trial in a U.S. District Court. How can the government explain that inherent contradiction?

Muhajir does not have a squeaky-clean past. As Jose Padilla, he was more than once on the receiving end of the U.S. criminal justice system. He did travel from Pakistan, and very well may be involved at some level with al Qaeda. He may have important intelligence, and he may be dangerous. However, this is for the court to ascertain, not the attorney general.

The Constitution was not designed to protect only the upstanding citizenry, but to provide the accused with the same measure of protection as well. If the most despised do not receive Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights, the rest of us are endangered not by the alleged wrongdoing, but by the annihilation of our basic freedoms.

The threat presented by the dirty bomb, however serious, is temporary. Our government’s reaction to the threat could be a permanent one to freedom.

Editorial Board: Dave Roepke, Erin Randolph, Charlie Weaver, Megan Hinds, Rachel Faber Machacha