Instapundit asks if Jonathan Turley's op-ed piece last week alerting everyone to Ashcroft's possible plans to build prison camps for U.S. citizens who are declared by Ashcroft to be "enemy combatants" is hyperbole.

For the record, Instapundit is "opposed to the imprisonment of American citizens without trial. Unlike the imprisonment of foreign citizens, it is almost certain to have a deeply corrupting effect on American politics. "

About the Turley article he writes,

"ANOTHER INTERNET RUMOR? John Hawkins investigates Jonathan Turley's claim (via a Los Angeles Times op-ed) that Ashcroft and the Justice Department were planning prison camps and finds it wanting."

The issue according to Mr. Hawkins, who writes for the Right Wing News by the way, seems to be whether plans to build a separate wing that could accomodate 20 of such prisoners equals a "prison camp."

What number should it take, 25, 100, 500? Should the number of beds at the first such facility be the determinative factor of whether it is a camp? Could it serve as a model for future facilities? If 50 such facilities were contemplated, would they be camps?

We don't know if Ashcroft is planning camps or not. But if it looks like a duck.....

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