Free Lesson Plans for Teachers: Enemy Combatants

Pass Ed's Living Textbook
Free Lesson Plans for Teachers
Alpha Stage

Atlantis
June 13, 2007

The New York Times is running an article entitled, "Judges Say U.S.
Can't Hold Man as Combatant."

The article begins, "The federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., ruled
yesterday that the president may not declare civilians in this country to
be "enemy combatants" and have the military hold them indefinitely.
The ruling was a stinging rejection of one of the Bush administration's
central assertions about the scope of executive authority to combat
terrorism."

According to the United States Department of Justice, as reported in
the article, the defendant in the case, Ali-al-Marri "..is an individual
who trained at Osama bin Laden's terrorist training camp in
Afghanistan..In the summer of 2001, he met with Khalid Shaykh
Muhammed, the mastermind of the September 11th attacks, and
entered the United States just before September 11 to serve as an Al
Qaeda sleeper agent and to explore methods of disrupting the U.S.
financial system."

Read the Article!!

Discussion Starters for Younger Children

Ask your students if they think that a police officer should be
allowed to arrest somebody just because he/she wants to do
so? What if the police officer simply does not like the person
because the person has black hair and not blond hair?

Ask your students to write down a few sentences
explaining when it is OK for a police officer to arrest
somebody.

Do your students think that it's fair for a parent to punish a
child but not tell the child why he/she is being punished?
Why/why not?

Students could make up skits in which a parent explains
to a child why he/she deserves to be punished and what
the punishment will be. Help students think about
appropriate consequences.

Do your students think that they should be allowed to do some
things at home that they would not be allowed to do if they
were out of the house? Why/why not? Encourage them to
give some examples.

Consider asking students to develop a list of 4 rules for
home and a list of 4 rules for outside of home. Why
should these different rules exist?

Ask your students if they think it's OK to talk loudly in a movie
theater? Encourage them to explain their answers. What if
they don't like the movie?

Consider asking students to make up short songs in
which they talk about the importance of respecting other
people's needs.

Discussion Starters for Older Children

Vocabulary terms to discuss: Civilian; Sanction; Immobilize;
and, Cursory.

Do your students think that the President of the United States
should be allowed to have people locked up without a legal
hearing (due process) because he fears they may harm large
numbers of people? Why/why not?

Consider asking students to respond to these questions
in a persuasive essays. Encourage them to reference a
core democratic value.

Do your students think that the President's power to lock
people up without due process should differ based on whether
the people are arrested on the U.S. mainland or outside of the U.
S.? Why/why not?

Consider asking students to develop a set of rules to
govern the President's power to arrest. (By the way,
what does this power mean? Does the President arrest
people himself?)

If somebody buys a home on a residential street, do your
students think that this person should be allowed to knock
down the house and build a bar, even if the other people living
the street do not want him to do so? Why/why not? How does
this question relate to the newspaper article?

These questions might prompt an interesting class
discussion.

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