“Democratic civilization,”
the French philosopher Jean-François Revel once observed,

“is the first in history to blame
itself because another power is trying to destroy it.”
We thought of Revel’s comment when reading
The Daily
Telegraph’s recent account of a
thirty-five-year-old Algerian member of al Qaeda who had
been released from a British prison because he was depressed.
“G.,” as the chap was
identified, “had been released on house arrest after suffering a
mental breakdown in custody.” Well, you know how these
Algerian terrorists are: they don’t like to remain cooped-up
at home. It makes them nervous.
We don’t know much about G., except that in October 2003 he
was sent to jail because the Court had concluded that he
had “actively assisted terrorists who have links to
al-Qa’eda.” So now the poor fellow is depressed. So what?
Being bonkers is part of what it means to be a terrorist.
Osama (if he is still with us) is probably pretty depressed,
too. We certainly hope so. According to the police, G.
violated house arrest by receiving unauthorized “visitors.”

(Who from? Did anyone check their headgear?) The Home
Secretary wanted to send G. back to jail. But the judge, a
Mr. Justice Collins, ruled that the crown had failed to
prove “to the necessary standard” that G. had wrongly
violated house arrest. G.’s solicitor likened the risk of
bail being wrongly withdrawn to the “‘sword of Damocles
hanging over anyone’s head,’” and said that it was the
“‘ultimate nightmare’” for G. “to be at the mercy of secret
evidence that he was unable to disprove.” Well, our ultimate
nightmare is the spectacle of convicted terrorists set free
courtesy of the suicidal machinations of liberal lawyers and
conniving courts.