It seems we are moving towards prosecuting beliefs and thoughts instead of actions. The criminal justice system is designed to punish crime, not to prevent it. Yes, we all want to prevent future attacks. But arresting people before they've committed an unlawful act, and in the abscence of concrete evidence they are attempting or conspiring to commit a crime is not the way to do it.

In the Portland case, there is no charge that the suspects planned to attack America--or that they knew any members of Al Qaeda. The suspects are five Americans and one naturalized citizen. The Times says it is not clear any of them ever made it into Afganistan, where the Government says their goal was to fight with Al Qaeda after September 11. Yet, as the Times points out, "that alleged desire--and the suspects' efforts to act on it--is at the core of the case against them."

So what changed to make the defendants agree to plead guilty to providing material support for al Qaeda and the Taliban? Well, this might be one thing: Ashcroft wasn't willing to let the defendants see the evidence against them (from the AP article linked to above):

The announcement came less than a week after Attorney General John Ashcroft asked [Judge] Jones to prevent the Portland defendants from viewing evidence used to obtain secret warrants that allowed the FBI to intercept conversations and bug the home of at least one of the seven defendants.

Ashcroft cited national security concerns. The defense said it wanted to review the evidence before deciding whether to challenge the warrants on constitutional grounds.