In article <jgkeegan-EF35EA.08011517082007@individual.net>, "james g.
keegan jr." <jgkeegan@gmail.com> wrote:

August 17, 2007
The New York Times
Editorial
The Padilla Conviction

There was overwelming evidense that this terrorist ***** trained at an
afganistan terroist training camp. The CIA has wiretap recordings of the
***** talking to a mujahideen recruter.
The above article was obviously written by a liberal reporter. Why do libs
have so much love and sympathy for Islamic terrorists?

In article <jgkeegan-EF35EA.08011517082007@individual.net>, "james g. keegan
jr." <jgkeegan@gmail.com> wrote:

August 17, 2007
The New York Times
Editorial

The Padilla Conviction

It is hard to disagree with the jury¹s guilty verdict against Jose
Padilla, the accused, but never formally charged, dirty bomber. But
it would be a mistake to see it as a vindication for the Bush
administration¹s serial abuse of the American legal system in the
name of fighting terrorism.

On the way to this verdict, the government repeatedly trampled on the
Constitution, and its prosecution of Mr. Padilla was so cynical and
inept that the crime he was convicted of ‹ conspiracy to commit
terrorism overseas ‹ bears no relation to the ambitious plot to wreak
mass destruction inside the United States, which the Justice
Department first loudly proclaimed. Even with the guilty verdict,
this conviction remains a shining example of how not to prosecute
terrorism cases.

When Mr. Padilla was arrested in 2002, the government said he was an
Al Qaeda operative who had plotted to detonate a radioactive dirty
bomb inside the United States. Mr. Padilla, who is an American
citizen, should have been charged as a criminal and put on trial in a
civilian court. Instead, President Bush declared him an ³enemy
combatant² and kept him in a Navy brig for more than three years.

The administration¹s insistence that it had the right to hold Mr.
Padilla indefinitely ‹ simply on the president¹s word ‹ was its first
outrageous act in the case, but hardly its last. Mr. Padilla was kept
in a small isolation cell, and when he left that cell he was
blindfolded and his ears were covered. He was denied access to a
lawyer even when he was being questioned.

The administration also insisted that the courts had no right to
second-guess its actions. It was only after the Supreme Court
appeared poised last year to use Mr. Padilla¹s case to decide whether
indefinite detention of an American citizen violates the
Constitution, that the White House suddenly decided to give him a
civilian trial. It was obvious that the administration was trying to
game the legal system and insulate itself from Supreme Court review.
J. Michael Luttig, a federal appeals court judge who heard Mr.
Padilla¹s case, warned about the consequences ³for the government¹s
credibility before the courts in litigation.²

The administration is already claiming victory, but the result in Mr.
Padilla¹s case is in many ways a mess. He will likely never be
brought to trial on the dirty-bomb plot, a much publicized charge
that cries out for resolution. (In another move worthy of Alice in
Wonderland, the government is holding another prisoner in Guantánamo,
Binyam Mohamed, because he was accused of conspiring with Mr. Padilla
in the dirty-bomb plot for which Mr. Padilla was never charged.)
There is also the danger that Mr. Padilla¹s conviction will be
reversed on appeal because of his alleged mistreatment before trial.
In hailing the verdict yesterday, a White House spokesman thanked the
jury for ³upholding a core American principle of impartial justice
for all.² It is a remarkable statement, since the administration did
everything it could to keep Mr. Padilla away from a jury and deny him
impartial justice.

After all that, there was still some good news yesterday: a would-be
terrorist will be going to jail. And the Bush administration was
forced, grudgingly and only at the very end, to provide him with the
rights guaranteed by the Constitution.


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/17/opinion/17fri1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

There was overwelming evidense that this terrorist ***** trained at an
afganistan terroist training camp. The CIA has wiretap recordings of the
***** talking to a mujahideen recruter.