We'll never find out in court if Jose Padilla (aka Abdullah al Muhajir) really did plot to explode a “dirty bomb” and spread radioactive waste in a major metropolitan area. That's because he's being held by the military as a “combatant”. He hadn't started building a bomb, and there's been no evidence that he was planning a specific attack–Padilla was busted May 8 as he got off a plane from Pakistan. All they know is that he allegedly surfed the web for information on how to build a dirty bomb.

The Wall Street Journal quotes deputy Defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz: 'There as not an actual plan. We stopped this man in the initial planning stages.”

No plan. No overt criminal acts. No trial–maybe a military tribunal. And what–life in a military prison in isolation? A firing squad?

Nobody seems to have picked up on the hidden precendent here yet. Think about this: if you surf the web looking for the “anarchist cookbook”, you could find yourself in a military prison, classified as a combatant. No trial. No burden of proof. No appeal.

If you're curious, you could be a terrorist.

Click here to become an illegal combatant.

Now, CBS News is reporting that officials are backing off from the “dirty bomb” claims, saying essentially, “we don't know what he was up to, but it was definitely no good.”

Ask any journalist who's worked for a big print media company about the dividing line between the biz side (ad sales) and the scribe side and the phrase “church & state” inevitably comes up — that is, as per the constitutional concept of separation of church and state. The biz side doesn't muck with the religion of journalism, and likewise, journos don't go on ad sales calls–well, at least not most of them.

If your're editorial management–an editor in chief–you can count on paying visits to potential advertisers with the publisher, to awe them with your knowledge and convert them to your editorial cause–especially if you're at a trade publication or a smaller company. It's the EIC's job to keep the church & state thing going, to not step across the line from providing information to participating actively in the pitch.

When I was an EIC (and then an editorial director) at Fawcette, I would usually excuse myself around the time they pulled out the media kit.

But in times like these, with most publishers struggling, it's not a matter of drawing the line–it's a matter of not being dragged across it. What does an editor-in-chief do if he or she knows his magazine is two ads short of making its nut, and the suits are sharpening their axes?

Well, hopefully, he has resumes out.

But honestly, when you're responsible for the livelihood of a bunch of people, how far would you go to assure the continued survival of your business? Do you get the state religion? Do you become a theocrat? If you cross the line, how far past it do you draw the next line?

All of these questions are why I'm happy to no longer be management for the moment.