(Updated: Originally published November 19, 2006)
"Padilla Case Raises Questions About Anti-Terror Tactics; Treatment in Brig Could Hinder His Prosecution" by Dan Eggen/Washington Post November 19, 2006
Well, we all know how that kangaroo court ended up: CONVICTION!
A Republican-appointed federal judge in Miami has disparaged the government's case as "light on facts," while defense lawyers have made detailed allegations that Padilla was illegally tortured, threatened and perhaps even drugged during his detention at a Navy brig in South Carolina.
Legal scholars and defense lawyers argue that the government's case is so fundamentally weak, and its legal options so limited, that Padilla could draw a relatively minor prison term or even be acquitted.
Nope! That did not happen!
Stephen I. Vladeck, an associate law professor at the University of Miami who has closely watched Padilla's case, said an acquittal says they never had anything to begin with:
"It's certainly not near as strong a case as it was made out to be when the indictment was unsealed."
Like all theses bogus terror cases!
The INITIAL CHARGES are blared through the shit media, but the crap cases are never dissected!
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales announced Padilla's indictment in late 2005. By moving Padilla into criminal court, the administration managed to sidestep a potential ruling from the Supreme Court on whether the government had the authority to hold a U.S. citizen such as Padilla without charges.
The indictment did not mention the previous allegations against Padilla, or any planned attacks on U.S. soil. Instead, it alleged that Padilla joined two other defendants, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi, in funneling money to terrorist groups for battles overseas.
Big deals are made when arrests and indictments are issued (remember the Miami Terror Hoax? Turned out the group was a bunch of Christian Haitians), while the scaling back of charges is quiet.
It's the "Richard Jewel" treatment.
You remember Jewel, the Olympic security gurad in Atlanta who claimed to find a bomb during the festivities.
Except the FBI said that he in fact planted it.
That's what you remember!
Not that Jewel was completely and totally exonerated!
Do a quick word association: When you say "Olympic Bomber," the first thing I think of is "Richard Jewel."
See! He must have done it, because that's what I remember about it!
Padilla's defense team, led by lawyers at the federal public defender's office in Miami, has attacked the case on several fronts, pushing for access to the alleged evidence against Padilla while also arguing that ill treatment during his confinement has polluted the government's case.
Padilla's attorneys say that his voice is heard on only eight of about 50,000 FBI wiretap recordings in the case, and that there is no mention of violence or jihad on any of the recordings connected to him.
Padilla was tortured for nearly the entire three years and eight months of his unlawful detention. The torture took myriad forms, each designed to cause pain, anguish, depression and, ultimately, the loss of will to live. The base ingredient in Mr. Padilla's torture was stark isolation for a substantial portion of his captivity.
The defense alleges that Padilla was held for 1,307 days in a 9-by-7-foot cell, isolated for days or weeks at a time, physically assaulted and threatened with execution and other violence, kept awake with lights and noises, and forced to take mind-altering drugs, possibly PCP or LSD.
The government counters that Padilla offers no evidence to back up the allegations and that, besides, his treatment by the military is irrelevant to the criminal case against him.
Will you look at your LYING, TORTURING GOVERNMENT, America?
The last sentence an admission that what Padilla says of his treatment is true!
His torture by the military "irrelevant?"
These guys are sick, evil, twisted men who possess not a shred of compassion or humanity.
The treatment of Padilla and other prisoners is a violation of international law and a WAR CRIME, authorized by the pen of George W. Bush -- EVIL INCARNATE!
