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| Home Front: WoT |
| Up Creek With Padilla |
| 2007-08-17 |
| Jules Crittenden explores the fever swamps of the antiwar Left so you don't have to . . . A terrorism conviction by a jury of his peers should shut up the Padillista cheering section. Don't you think? Carpetbagger apparently can't read: Dirty bomb plot "false. There was no such plan." Cat's got Firedoglake's tongue, after visions of sweet release for Padilla expected from a quick jury turn-around at the end of a "Kafkaesque trial" prove premature. Later, special correspondent Lewis Z. Koch, who's been covering this thing five years, chimes in with a rant about how Padilla was psychologically tortured. Firedog cat has his tongue on the central issues of the case, too. Koch by the way, is a fan of this site. Or he was. Don't know if his FDL pals have filled him in yet. Newhog indignation here. Should have been terrorist Bush on trial instead of peace-loving American Padilla. Bush torture to blame. This seems to be emerging as the main thread. Padilla was driven so crazy he couldn't refute his fingerprints on the document and his voice on the tape. OK, a couple more. Left Field: fear wins out. Yeah, Americans are stupid. LF adds remark about what a failure Bush's anti-terrorism policies are. There must be a successful terrorist attack on the mainland U.S. in the last six years less one month that I've forgotten. Shakespeare's Sister (really, that might actually be more insulting to Shakespeare than "Newshogger" is to pigs) sniffs that to wingnuts this will justify everything that was done to Padilla over the last 3 1/2 years. Well ... no, not really, that was already OK. About that torture-nullification theory, by the way, judge didn't agree. The AP, to its credit, includes here something missing in earlier reports, that none of the above seem much interested in noting: U.S. officials said Padilla, while incarcerated in a military brig in South Carolina, admitted exploring the dirty bomb plot. But that evidence could not be used at trial because he was not read his rights and did not immediately have access to an attorney. . . . It turns out, when the United States made the mistake of treating a turncoat enemy combatant as such, rather than treating him as a garden-variety domestic criminal, they screwed their primary case due to Miranda issues. This would not have been a problem had Padilla been subjected to a military tribunal and summary execution. You know, like George Washington used to do. The kind of thing you would expect for a traitor who has taken up arms against his country. But it is fascinating that there are Americans who hate their president so much, they are willing to believe anything that terrorists, their legal representatives and their sympathizers say, to the point of ignoring reports in their own Bush-bashing press. One question. If the last big jury verdict was a vindication of Bush hatred, what does that make this one? |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #2 In my opinion, post 9-11 or post the first few months of the Afghan operation, the Dept of Justice should have proposed a comprehensive law to replace the obsolete stuff we have now with provisions distinguishing between the various cases of - Americans who are captured working with enemy combatants - Americans who are captured working with illegal enemy combatants (like AlQ) - resident aliens who are... - non citizens who are... Instead, the Dept of Justice basically stalled, let Congress suggest some stuff, etc. Of course the lefties went nuts but this was entirely predictable and in fact enabled by the Dept of Justice in capacity. |
| Posted by: mhw 2007-08-17 14:58 |
| #1 Surely that is Abdullah al-Muhajir. It is most insensitive of the press to insist on referring to him by his kaffir name. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2007-08-17 14:05 |