This guy -- this American citizen -- got 17 YEARS for doing NOTHING!
Also see: Memory Hole: What Four Years of Torture Will Do to an Innocent Man
And gee, that's funny.
The web Globe carries an LA Times article (forget about them, anyway) while I'm staring at this byline in my paper copy: "by Kirk Semple and Carmen Gentile New York Times News Service!"
WTF?
"Padilla gets more than 17 years in prison on terror charges; Judge rejects call for life sentence, questions his role" by Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times | January 23, 2008
MIAMI - A federal judge rejected prosecutors' pleas that she put onetime accused dirty-bomber Jose Padilla in prison for life yesterday, citing the treatment he received during 3 1/2 years he spent in military detention as an enemy combatant.
In turning aside government arguments for the toughest sentence possible, US District Judge Marcia G. Cooke also said there were no victims or damage from the crimes of which Padilla and codefendants Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi were convicted.
A jury convicted the three in August of conspiracy to murder, maim, or kidnap persons overseas and to provide material support to terrorist groups.
Under the sentence imposed by Cooke, Padilla will serve 17 years and four months with credit for time served. The 37-year-old Muslim convert could be free before he is 50.
The judge's surprising move to depart from federal sentencing guidelines caused the defendants' lawyers to proclaim symbolic victory in a case that has stirred controversy since Padilla was arrested in Chicago almost six years ago.
Cooke deemed the recommended terms of 30 years to life more appropriate to people such as Terry Nichols, who plotted the 1995 Oklahoma City federal building bombing that killed 168 people, and would-be Sept. 11 hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui.
"There is no evidence that these defendants personally maimed, kidnapped, or killed anyone in the United States or elsewhere," Cooke said. She also noted defense arguments that Australian David Hicks, the only terrorism suspect convicted at the US military's war-crimes tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is already out of prison. Hicks fought against US forces in Afghanistan in the weeks after the October 2001 invasion in search of Al Qaeda hide-outs.
Padilla's mother was jubilant over the unexpected sentence, saying the judge's action proved her son wasn't the dangerous terrorist alleged by the government.
"What they said about Jose Padilla - this proves he's not a terrorist. He's not an enemy combatant. He's not Al Qaeda or Taliban. He's just a human being and an American citizen," Estela Ortega-Lebron said of the sentence.
Cooke also cut the sentence given to Hassoun, a 45-year-old Fort Lauderdale, Fla., computer programmer, and Jayyousi, 46, who holds a doctorate degree in engineering and worked as a schools administrator in San Diego during the time he was fund-raising for besieged Muslims in Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia, and Chechnya.
Hassoun, who recruited Padilla, drew 15 years and eight months. Jayyousi received 12 years and eight months. They, too, are expected to receive further reductions for time served and for having no previous criminal history, which should drop the their prison time to less than 10 years each.
Jayyousi's lawyer, William Swor, said he appreciated Cooke's recognition that his client was the least culpable in the alleged North American terror support cell.
But Swor condemned the government for bringing the case. "The government hasn't made America any safer nor promoted the rule of law. It has just made America less free," he said, noting his client's participation involved writing a newsletter and speaking his mind.
Although Cooke agreed to recommend that Hassoun be imprisoned in Florida, Hassoun's lawyer, Ken Swartz, said he feared the men could be sent to a federal "supermax" facility because other Muslim Arabs convicted of support for terrorism have been sent to the toughest maximum-security prisons.
Assistant US Attorney John Shipley informed Cooke that the government objected to the sentences as too lenient and would appeal."
Here's the flip side (in a web rewrite? Aaaaaahhhhh!!!):
"Padilla Gets 17 Years in Conspiracy Case" by KIRK SEMPLE
MIAMI — Jose Padilla, the Brooklyn-born convert to Islam whom the government once accused of plotting to detonate a “dirty bomb” in the United States, was sentenced on Tuesday to 17 years and 4 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to help Islamic jihadist fighters abroad.
The sentence was more lenient than the federal sentencing guidelines recommended and was a setback for the government, which had requested life in prison, the maximum.
In explaining her decision, Judge Marcia G. Cooke of Federal District Court in Miami underscored the gravity of the crimes Mr. Padilla, 37, had committed. But she questioned the effects of the conspiracy, saying there was no evidence linking Mr. Padilla and two co-defendants to specific terrorism acts anywhere.
“There is no evidence that these defendants personally maimed, kidnapped or killed anyone in the United States or elsewhere,” Judge Cooke said. “There was never a plot to overthrow the United States government.”
She noted that defendants in other well-known American terrorism cases had received life sentences for more heinous crimes, including Zacarias Moussaoui, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks, and Terry L. Nichols, who was convicted of murder in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in 1995 in Oklahoma City.
Over prosecutors’ objections, Judge Cooke gave Mr. Padilla credit for the three and a half years he spent in a naval brig in South Carolina after his arrest in 2002 on suspicion of being involved in the dirty bomb plot, accusations that were dropped.
In detention, Mr. Padilla underwent prolonged isolation and intensive interrogations in conditions the judge called “harsh.” The conditions, she said, “warrant consideration in the sentencing.”
See my link above about torture doing to a man.
Mr. Padilla remained impassive at the hearing, but the co-defendants smiled and waved to supporters and family members as marshals led them from the courtroom. Lawyers for the three promised to appeal the sentences and verdicts, but they were in a somewhat victorious mood after the sentencings.
“It’s definitely a defeat for the government,” said Jeanne Baker, a lawyer for a co-defendant who was sentenced to 15 years and 8 months. A spokeswoman for the United States attorney’s office here, Alicia Valle, said the government was considering an appeal on the sentences. While acknowledging the terms were well below what prosecutors sought, Ms. Valle said: “These are serious sentences that effectively dismantle a North American support cell for terrorists. That’s a good thing.”
The sentences, after a three-month trial and a seven-day sentencing hearing, closed a chapter in Mr. Padilla’s odyssey that began with his arrest in May 2002 at O’Hare airport in Chicago.
Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the arrest, saying Mr. Padilla was part of an “unfolding terrorist plot to attack the United States” by exploding a radioactive dirty bomb intended to cause “mass death and injury.”
Mr. Padilla was identified as an “enemy combatant” and held without charge. In 2006, as the Supreme Court prepared to weigh the constitutionality of his detention, he was transferred to the civilian courts here.
He was added to the conspiracy case of two men, Ahmad Amin Hassoun, 45, a computer programmer of Palestinian descent, and Kifah Wael Jayyousi, 46, a public school administrator who came from Jordan.
The three were accused of belonging to a North American terrorism support cell that provided money, recruits and supplies to Islamic extremists globally.
Defense lawyers said the men were involved in humanitarian missions for persecuted Muslims in Bosnia, Chechnya, Lebanon, Somalia and other places.
The main evidence against Mr. Padilla, a former Chicago gang member with a long criminal record, was an application form that prosecutors said he had filled out to attend a Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in 2000.
Last August, a federal jury here convicted the three of conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people in a foreign country and of two counts of material support.
Under federal guidelines, the co-defendants could have also been sentenced to life in prison.
Mr. Hassoun, who recruited Mr. Padilla in a Broward County mosque, received 15 years and 8 months. Mr. Jayyousi, said to be a financier and propagandist for the cell, received 12 years and 8 months.
William Swor, a lawyer for Mr. Jayyousi, criticized his sentence.
“The government has not made America safer nor promoted the rule of law,” Mr. Swor said. “The government has just made America less free.”
Mr. Padilla’s mother, Estela Lebron, told reporters outside the courthouse that the Bush administration had waged a misguided prosecution against her son, calling it “insane.” “He’s a human being and an American citizen,” she said. “He’s not a terrorist.”
Mr. Padilla’s case became the centerpiece of a debate about the Bush administration’s approach to prosecuting terrorism.
Administration officials had long maintained that some suspects could be properly handled only with military detention and trials by military commissions, not in the civilian system.
But the verdict against Mr. Padilla seemed to undercut that insistence and, in the eyes of administration critics, showed that the civilian system should have had the case from the start."
What they didn't tell you in this "wrap-up" is the case was based upon:
"Thousands of calls in which Mr. Hassoun and Mr. Jayyousi sometimes discussed “playing football” or “eating cheese” — code, prosecutors said, for assisting in violent jihad.... Padilla’s voice was heard in only seven calls, and he was not accused of using code."
See: Padilla's Verdict for more.
AmeriKa's KANGAROO JUSTICE!
Help us!!
Someone!!
World?
God?
ANYONE!!!!!!!
