Recent Arrests in Terror Plots Yield Debate on Pre-emptive Action by Government - New York Times

Recent Arrests in Terror Plots Yield Debate on Pre-emptive Action by Government - New York Times:

Here's the problem with some lawyers. They prefer legal niceties in the face of radical terrorists whose aim is to kill us by any means they can. The government is correct to nip these plots in the bud. The 'skeptical' lawyers such as Mr. Stolar can defend the plotters, pro bono, if they choose.

"But the Miami and New York cases are inspiring a new round of skepticism from some lawyers who are openly questioning whether the government, in its zeal to stop terrorism, is forgetting an element central to any case: the actual intent to commit a crime. 'Talk without any kind of an action means nothing,' said Martin R. Stolar, a New York defense lawyer. 'You start to criminalize people who are not really criminals.' In the two most recent plots, the authorities have simultaneously warned that the suspects were contemplating horrific attacks Â? blowing up the Sears Tower in Chicago and setting off a bomb in a tunnel between New York and New Jersey Â? but then added that as far as they knew, no one was close to actually making such a strike."