Uncle Sam hereby decrees…

The recent hue-and-cry over how the Christmas "Underwear Bomber," Umar Abdulmutallab, was treated by the FBI—i.e., not tortured—we have seen the disingenuous and nearly insane stance that some Democrats and virtually all Republicans have adopted when it comes to preventing terrorism and catching terrorists.

White House Counterterrorism Adviser John Brennan said Sunday that the Republican leadership in the House and Senate had learned of Abdulmutallab's arrest, interrogation and the subsequent reading of his rights shortly after the attack took place. The last part is what has had them all in such a tizzy this past month.

"But he's a terrorist," they say, "terrorists don't have rights." And herein lies the problem, how do we know Abdulmutallab or anyone else is a terrorist if terrorists have no rights? If a government proclamation makes it so, then what use do we have for trials at all?

This gets even worse. The Obama Administration is actively trying to kill Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric and U.S.-born American citizen. Al-Awlaki, government officials have repeatedly claimed, is a terrorist rabble-rouser; he e-mailed with the Fort Hood shooter and allegedly had contact with Abdulmutallab while he was in Yemen.

Therefore, he is on a secret list of people the U.S. government is trying to assassinate. I'm going to repeat that for clarity. The U.S. government is trying to assassinate one of its own citizens, not on a battlefield in the midst of a conflict, but anywhere they can find him—his house, his bed, at a restaurant—anywhere.

Now the government's ongoing claims of power extend to the right to murder an American citizen because they say he is a bad guy. He won't receive a trial, the government doesn't have to prove any charges or present any evidence, it merely assigns the label "terrorist" to a person, even one of their own citizens, and they have free reign to kill them on sight.

The government isn't thumbing its nose at the ideas of due process and rule of law—it's pushing them off a cliff. Our whole judicial system is based on the idea that the government is not perfect, and therefore must actually demonstrate that a person is guilty of the charges against them by presenting evidence, in a trial.

Everybody who passed a civics class in high school should remember that anyone who is arrested on American territory is entitled to protection under the Constitution, as it says "persons" and not "citizens" when it comes to any rights other than voting rights.

They should also remember that just because you speak out against your government's actions (in this case, al-Awlaki decries Israel policy and the Iraq War) and advocate resistance to those actions, your government cannot summarily execute you.

All Americans should be wary of the Bush policy, now fully embraced and even expanded by Obama, that allows the government to claim that any person, even American citizens, are "terrorists" and have it be taken as fact. Because if it does happen, and it ends up happening to you, all you'll have said in your defense is "they're a terrorist, and terrorists don't have rights."