than the possible abuses of not having the government accountable at all. But surely there are other possibilities. At least give detailed records to, and allow inspection by, the Judicial branch, and probably Congress as well. Also, make sure that law enforcement agencies everywhere have the names, so they can deal with missing persons reports in a fully informed fashion.

We need all the above in order to be able to enforce the rules: no US citizens are to be detained, and if a foreigner from a democratic country is detained, we don't stonewall that country's embassy. I don't much care about the civil rights of other groups, because they themselves are perfectly accustomed to not having rights. Which is in itself a bad thing, but that's a whole `nuther debate.

I guess I'd feel a lot better about the witholding of names if Abraham Lincoln were in the White House, but he's not. It's hard for me to give Dubya the benefit of that kind of doubt, and impossible to give it to Ashcroft.