From International News
By Shaheen Sehbai

Two court decisions in two days have seriously jeopardised President George W Bush’s authority to carry out pre-emptive actions against anyone he suspects to be a terrorist or a collaborator inside the United States.

In the first judgment given by a known radical judge in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Bush’s authority to designate groups as terrorist organisations was struck down while in another case in Portland, Oregon, the Bush administration on Wednesday agreed to pay two million dollars to a Muslim who was wrongly arrested and jailed by the FBI, suspected of being a terrorist.

Analysts said both the decisions hit the Bush strategy of dealing harshly with potential suspects hard, especially if they were Muslims or they belonged to any organisation which had suspected links to any terrorist outfit outside the US.

While the first decision to strike down the president’s authority would definitely be challenged by the administration in higher courts, the payment of compensation to the converted Muslim and his family in Oregon would force the FBI to look more closely at suspects before taking action.

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