BACK IN BUSINESS - AT 7:10 P.M. ET:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Taliban's new top operations officer in southern Afghanistan had been a prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay detention center, the latest example of a freed detainee who took a militant leadership role and a potential complication for the Obama administration's efforts to close the prison. U.S. authorities handed over the detainee to the Afghan government, which in turn released him, according to Pentagon and CIA officials.

COMMENT:  Great, isn't it?  What if we'd released Nazi or Japanese prisoners during World War II?  We still are not taking the war on terror seriously enough.  Too many see it as a law-enforcement problem, and see detainees as petty thieves whose rights must be protected above all else.  This released prisoner is planning operations that will kill Americans, but I doubt if the ACLU cares.

March 10, 2009