Two standards of detention

Scott Roeder, the anti-abortion zealot charged with killing Dr. George Tiller, has been busy. He called the Associated Press from the Sedgwick County Jail in Kansas, saying, "I know there are many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal." Charged with first-degree murder and aggravated assault, he is expected to be arraigned July 28. AP recently reported that Roeder has been proclaiming from his jail cell that the killing of abortion providers is justified. According to the report, the Rev. Donald Spitz of the Virginia-based Army of God sent Roeder seven pamphlets defending "defensive action," or killing of abortion clinic workers. Spitz's militant Army of God Web site calls Roeder an "American hero," proclaiming, "George Tiller would normally murder between 10 and 30 children ... each day ... when he was stopped by Scott Roeder." The site, with biblical quotes suggesting killing is justified, hosts writings by Paul Hill, who killed Dr. John Britton and his security escort in Pensacola, Fla., and by Eric Rudolph, who bombed a Birmingham, Ala., women's health clinic, killing its part-time security guard. On Spitz's Web site, Rudolph continues to write about abortion: "I believe that deadly force is indeed justified in an attempt to stop it." Juxtapose Roeder's advocacy from jail with the conditions of Fahad Hashmi. Hashmi is a U.S. citizen who grew up in Queens, N.Y., and went to Brooklyn College. He went to graduate school in Britain and was arrested there in 2006 for allegedly allowing an acquaintance to stay with him for two weeks. That acquaintance, Junaid Babar, allegedly kept at Hashmi's apartment a bag containing ponchos and socks, which Babar later delivered to an al-Qaida operative. Babar was arrested and agreed to cooperate with the authorities in exchange for leniency.