Week 5

After watching the video, I agreed highly with Derek Smith in the clip “Intelligence Gathering and Civil Liberties”. Derek Smith is the Chairman and CEO of ChoicePoint. He spoke about having “knowledge of probable cause” being used and that there should be court approval to detain terrorists. He states there needs to be a “correlation and connection to find out relationships and gather real knowledge” of terrorists and the threats of terrorists. He used the example of 9/11, saying that there were two people on the terrorist watch list and through gathering information these two people were connected to the nineteen terrorists that were involved in September 11. If there is probable cause and court approval is obtained I, like Becca, believe that people should be detained for a reasonable amount of time. Under no circumstances, should someone be detained without having reason to do so or for unreasonable amounts of time.

In an article I found on CNN.com, the U.S. is looking to have a man extradited, from Canada to the U.S., for his role in a bombing that killed five U.S. soldiers. The U.S. fears him to be an enemy of the state. They are pushing to have him held by Canadian authorities without being set free on bond. The U.S. has issued a warrant. This means that they had probable cause and the courts approval to have Faruq Khalil Muhammad tried in court for the crimes he is accused of. The U.S. has gathered enough evidence to determine that Muhammad, if not detained by Canadian authorities, could be a risk to Americans here on American soil or in Iraq, where U.S. soldiers are stationed. This is an example of the proper ways of using of probable cause and court approval to detain a person who is suspected of being a terrorist.