Don't get on Ashcroft's bad side

Combatants Lack Rights, US Argues (Washinton Post)
An excerpt:
“There is no right under the laws and customs of war for an enemy combatant to meet with counsel concerning his detention, much less to meet with counsel in private, without military authorities present,” the Justice Department wrote. “The court may not second-guess the military's enemy combatant determination. Going beyond that determination would require the courts to enter an area in which they have no competence…[and could] possibly create 'a conflict between judicial and military opinion highly comforting to enemies of the United States,' ” the brief said, citing a 1950 Supreme Court ruling…

“This is really an astounding assertion of authority,” said David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor. “It's not just that you have no right to a lawyer, it's that you have no right to even have a hearing. . . . If that is true, then there is really no limit to the president's power to label U.S. citizens as bad people and then have them held in military custody indefinitely.”