After five years of imprisonment before his speedy trial, U.S. citizen Jose Padilla finally gets a chance to answer charges against him in a court as mandated by law. Five years of torture, and now he's not quite as dangerous as John Ashcroft originally claimed. Remind me what country we live in again?
Bush sucker-punches civil liberties (via)
Carol J. Williams of the LA Times writes:
Five years after his arrest, Padilla finally goes to trial. Terror suspect faces life in prison on reduced charges
Cast as a murderous Al Qaeda warrior when arrested five years ago, Jose Padilla goes on trial this week on downsized charges of conspiracy to commit terrorism.The 36-year-old former Chicago gang member originally was accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive dirty bomb in an unnamed U.S. city. In a dramatic satellite broadcast from Moscow in May 2002, then-Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft portrayed Padilla's interception at O'Hare International Airport as a government victory in averting a disaster on the scale of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The 36-year-old former Chicago gang member originally was accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive dirty bomb in an unnamed U.S. city. In a dramatic satellite broadcast from Moscow in May 2002, then-Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft portrayed Padilla's interception at O'Hare International Airport as a government victory in averting a disaster on the scale of the Sept. 11 attacks.
...information Do Campo elicited from a fearful client detailing manipulations of light and noise in the 16-cell brig unit in which Padilla was the only prisoner. He was deprived of any furnishing beyond a bare steel bunk and had no view outside his cell, obliterating all sense of time. A noxious odor pervaded the cell, he had neither reading material nor glasses, and electronically operated doors in the echoing cellblock were open and shut at all hours, the defense reported.
CHARGES: Jose Padilla, Kifah Wael Jayyousi and Adham Amin Hassoun are accused of providing money and manpower to extremist groups in areas including Bosnia, Chechnya and Afghanistan. If convicted, they could be sentenced to life in prison.
Mr. Padilla isn't a sympathetic figure, at least before he was tortured for years, but he's been treated as if he were threatening to rape Jenna and not-Jenna with Barbara Bush's penis!
Tags: civil_liberties, /civil_rights, /terrorism, /torture
