The President Bush Assassination Plot trial currently getting underway in Virginia looks depressingly like revealing a Constitutional outrage of the first magnitude. It appears all too plausible that the U.S. authorities may have engineered the arrest of an American citizen by a foreign government, his imprisonment overseas without trial for almost two years, and perhaps his torture. The Founding Fathers would have been up in arms over Crown behavior like this—as would 18th Century Englishmen, too, for that matter.

But that is not a direct VDARE.COM concern. The accused, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, guilty or not, is a perfect example of why the ridiculous "Birthright Citizenship" misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment is an outrage and a threat to the American people. Reversing it immediately is essential. Educated at an Arab High School in Virginia from whence he went directly to a Saudi University, the only thing American about this man was his Passport.

Chances of getting this blunder fixed are not high if the dishonesty and lack of integrity of the media?s handling of the facts are anything to judge by. Consider the introductory descriptions:

"An American Student" -San Francisco Chronicle

"A 23 year old American" - New York Daily News

"A Virginia Man" - Newsday "A Virginian" - Los Angeles Times (Take that Robert E. Lee!)

"A US citizen" - Chicago Tribune

"A Houston native and Virginia high school valedictorian" - Houston Chronicle (A twofer of misrepresentation—he only spent a couple of years after birth in Houston and his high school was distinctly unusual.)

Given the factual subtleties here, it does take a certain amount of journalistic professionalism to present the truth. The overseas media did the job:

"Arab-American" The Scotsman

"An American citizen of Arab descent" - The Australian

While America's Big media are too craven or dishonest to state facts accurately, how can the country's immigration (or Middle Eastern) problems be addressed?