Any time such as this, where there's a small triumph of human rights over paranoia and irrational fear of foreigners, I'm reminded of the many times Bush, Cheney, Ashcroft, Gonzales, et. al. have used some version of the phrase "working with our hands tied behind our back" in reference to how we deal with actual terrorists.

Whether it's waterboarding, the abuses at Abu Gharib, or offering simple Habeas protection to POWs (sorry, "enemy combatants") the justification for treating foreigners as subhuman is that they would do the same to us, and we need to fight on equal footing against the them. As if the terrorists' willingness to commit atrocities gives them the upper hand against a superpower of our magnitude!

Some of this is undoubtedly paranoid reaction to 9/11, which was a one in a million "perfect storm" that I sincerely doubt could ever be replicated. When you live in a free society there is always the possibility of someone taking advantage of those freedoms to cause calamity and destruction, but we're strong enough a country to be both safe and free.

I consider this a very small victory for justice in America, and hope it's the beginning of a long winning streak as we try to close the door on the Bush era.