WIRED Staff
Security

Bad Code

I've been puzzling over the Republican bill to deny accused terrorists fair trials, and the seemingly-irrational language champions of the legislation have been using to describe its purpose. The goal, "is to render justice to the terrorists, even though they will not render justice to us." — Senator Lindsey Graham. "We don't want (terror suspects) […]

I've been puzzling over the Republican bill to deny accused terrorists fair trials, and the seemingly-irrational language champions of the legislation have been using to describe its purpose.

The goal, "is to render justice to the terrorists, even though they will not render justice to us." -- Senator Lindsey Graham.

"We don't want (terror suspects) to have everyday rights of American civilians right here. These are war criminals." -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.

It occurs to me now that the whole 94-page bill really amounts to a common, one-character programming error.

if (person = terrorist) {
punish_severely();
} else {
exit(-1);
}

Can you spot the error? (Solution).

This is why coders and other left-brained types seldom vote Republican.

I'm confident the Supreme Court will catch this in debugging. Just in case, I'm sending them a copy of Kernighan and Ritchie.