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Extreme Measures: Does The United States Need Preventive Detention To Combat Domestic Terrorism?, Diane Webber

Diane Webber

The paper examines current methods of preventive detention in the United States, that is the detaining of a suspect on home soil to prevent a terrorist attack. This paper looks at two recent events: the Fort Hood shootings and a preventive arrest in France, to consider problems in combating terrorist crimes on U.S. soil. I demonstrate that U.S. law as it now stands, with some limited exceptions, does not permit detention to forestall an anticipated domestic terrorist crime. After reviewing and evaluating the way in which France, Israel and the United Kingdom use forms of preventive detention to thwart possible …