Earlier this month, a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in Richmond, Va., ruled the Bush administration couldn’t continue to hold Ali al-Marri, a Qatari citizen and a legal U.S. resident, in military detention indefinitely without charging him with a crime.

As expected, the hate-Bush crowd had a field day. "Another sweeping repudiation of the administration’s strategy of treating suspected terrorists like enemy soldiers rather than like criminals," stated an ACLU representative.

"A major setback," "a severe rebuke," "a victory for the Constitution," and on and on, ad nauseam.

First, these people shouldn’t start partying quite yet. As I said above, it was a panel of three judges making this decision, and the decision was only 2-1.

The U.S. attorney general has already asked the full 4th Circuit Court to review the decision. This means 15 judges, rather than three, will be looking at the facts of the case. Legal authorities predict that it will end up in the Supreme Court.

Also, let’s look at the false accusations that President Bush has misused his power to declare a U.S. citizen an enemy combatant.

Remember how after the Patriot Act was passed, all those Chicken Littles cried how armed men in black suits, wearing black sunglasses and driving black limos were going to break into citizens’ homes by the thousands, tearing them from their crying families and that they would disappear forever?

How many times has it happened? Maybe four, no more than five times. Wow, what blatant disregard for our Constitution. And who were these innocent victims?

First came little Johnny Walker Lindh. He was an easy one. He was the U.S. citizen captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan while attempting to kill Americans.

Briefly (unfortunately) held by the military, he was luckily (for him) convicted in federal district court and sentenced to 20 years. He should have been held by the military, bled for information and then, under the Unified Code of Military Justice, hanged for treason.[an error occurred while processing this directive]