criminal thinking

Once, the yardstick of a crime was the crime itself. Now, bit by bit, even considering a crime has apparently become a crime:

Under U.S. law, federal prosecutors do not have to “establish a link with specific terrorist activities” in order to charge a suspect with a crime, but only show a suspect intended to “support or join” a group the government has already labeled a terrorist organization, the paper noted.

The quote comes from a Reuters story outlining U.S. efforts to encourage foreign countries to ramp up their efforts against not just the criminals called "terrorists," but pre-emptively to ramp up the efforts against 'apparent' or 'wannabe' extremists.

The U.S. Justice Department has provided specific suggestions to governments in Europe and elsewhere on how to strengthen counterterrorism laws in order to arrest would-be foreign fighters before they join groups like Islamic State, according to a policy paper reviewed by Reuters.

And bit by bit. like the tortures at Abu Ghraib, the lawyers line up to declare it all legal and, no doubt, desirable.