Remember when

They called us paranoid when we said we were worried that Bush would declare martial law? I'd call this a vindication.

— Top Bush administration officials in 2002 debated testing the Constitution by sending American troops into the suburbs of Buffalo to arrest a group of men suspected of plotting with Al Qaeda, according to former administration officials.

Some of the advisers to President George W. Bush, including Vice President Dick Cheney, argued that a president had the power to use the military on domestic soil to sweep up the terrorism suspects, who came to be known as the Lackawanna Six, and declare them enemy combatants. [...]

Those who advocated using the military to arrest the Lackawanna group had legal ammunition: the memorandum by Mr. Yoo and Mr. Delahunty. [...]

The document added that the neither the Posse Comitatus Act nor the Fourth Amendment tied a president’s hands.[...]

Mr. Bush ultimately decided against the proposal to use military force.

Clearly Cheney was behind the power grab but who knows if Bush would have decided differently if we hadn't been willing to endure the ridicule to warn that they were planning it? Sometimes a little preventive paranoia can be a good thing.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]