Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Padilla Indicted

It only took them three years. Now that's a "speedy trial" if I've ever heard of one. Someone must have finally hit them over the head and made them realize that the Supreme Court was going to overturn the policy. It's worth noting here what they did not charge him with. Conspiring to set off a dirty bomb, they've fallen back on their favorite weak charge "providing material support to terrorists."
Jose Padilla, the alleged "dirty bomber" who has been at the center of fierce legal and political struggles for more than three years, has been indicted on charges that he conspired to murder individuals overseas and provide support for terrorists, according to federal court documents unsealed yesterday.

The indictment abruptly moves Padilla's case out of the shadows of his confinement in a U.S. Navy brig in South Carolina, where the Brooklyn-born former gang member has been held since President Bush declared him an enemy combatant in 2002. The indictment, handed up by a federal grand jury in Miami last week, names four other defendants.

1 comment:

The Manly Ferry said...

Oh, but it's so much bigger than Padilla. Even the straight news reports are calling this a blatant dodge of the courts, a certainty of "voice" that I still find shocking. Somewhere in my post on this, I link to something that demonstrates that this is one sleazy, half-on-the-books precedent. Very ugly...