Homeland security and the Ramsey case.

The Ramsey case has recently been thrust back into the headlines because of the arrest of John Mark Karr, an American expatriate living in Bangkok, Thailand, who was accused of murdering six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey and then extradited to this country to face charges. The case has included several well-publicized twists and turns, including Karr's "admission" that he had killed JonBenet and the subsequent official announcement that Karr will not be charged because the DNA found at the crime scene does not match his.

One publicized twist that raised eyebrows was Karr clinking his drinking glass with the glass of a law enforcement official while he was being brought back to the country flying business class. Though the legal presumption should always be innocent until proven guilty, it is strange for a law enforcement official to clink glasses with an accused child killer prior to the revelation that the DNA samples did not match.

Still another twist is the role played by the Department of Homeland Security in Karr's arrest and extradition, including the use of a DHS official to announce at a Bangkok news conference that Karr would be extradited. That should really have raised eyebrows! After all, if the decade-old murder of an innocent child qualifies as a "homeland security" matter, what criminal matter would not qualify as falling under "homeland security"?