I don’t know if Dave Chirayath (Oct. 6) is misinformed or just interested in joining the liberal Bush-bashing crowd.

How does “the U.S. Senate’s passage of a bill allow the President to ‘torture and indefinitely imprison any detainess'” eliminate our Constitutional rights? What is his defintion of “torture?” To compare the Soviet Union with a “smaller group of enemies,” look at what that smaller group has already done: World Trade Center, U.S.S. Cole, 9/11 and attempts on other occasions.

Followers of Osama bin Laden and his ilk may be small, but they are determined, and have no scruples regarding what it takes to accomplish their diabolical aims.

Whatever we can learn from detainees that might prevent more 9/11s or worse is well worth the elimination of – not our rights – but the so-called rights of sworn enemies.

Wesley Johnson, Monmouth