Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Jose Padilla

Yesterday was the 5 year anniversary of the arrest of Jose Padilla. "Five years after his initial arrest, Padilla's criminal trial appears finally destined to actually take place, with jury selection concluding today and opening arguments scheduled to begin next Monday, May 14."

The article points out that the trial might be anti-climatic on this case. Remember he was a US citizen arrested on US soil and declared an enemy combatant and held in a military brig for 3 years. There were rumors of him being a terrorist, plotting to blow up a dirty bomb in the US, etc.

He petitioned for habeas corpus, but the government fought to deny him his basic right. It made it to the Supreme Court but it was ruled on a technicality. Shortly before it made it back to the Supreme Court, he was transfered to a civilian prison and indicted on charges he "conspired to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas." The scary thing about this case is that the US government arrested and held a US citizen as an enemy combatant without charges for 3 years and then let him go on anything that would allow that action.

This is one of the real reasons that Alberto Gonzales shouldn't be Attorney General.

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