Letters to the Editor
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Didn't make it long, did you?
Good point, though. This will hopefully lead to a few more "terrorists" being brought up on charges instead of hidden away in dark rooms.
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Short Vacation!
Less than five hours!
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Short Vacation!
About the only thing that could have made me break my vow of blogging silence was a verdict in the Jose Padilla case. Thus, 30 minutes after I wrote my mini-vacation post, I received an e-mail alerting me to the fact that the jury had reached a verdict, one which was not expected until the middle of next week at the earliest.
Unless Alberto Gonzales is impeached over the weekend, I now retire for real this time, until Monday.
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Undoing the damage
We need to begin asking potential presidential candidates which of Bush's constitutional insults they plan to renounce, and when. I would be looking for an "all of them, first day on the job" response.
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So little protest...
...at least that we hear about. I read on the web about protest being planned, pictures of the actual event, but almost no, if any news coverage. I suggest the next several protests...be they about the war or the slaughter of our rights, be held in front of newspaper offices and TV stations. Insist they start telling the truth and covering exactly how this administration has acted so unAmerican and anti-constitutional.
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Padilla's Brain Damage
http://democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/16/1416242
DR. ANGELA HEGARTY: Well, during my time with him, some of his reasoning seemed somewhat impaired, some of his thinking seemed impaired, his memory certainly, his ability to pay attention seemed very impaired. [...]
AMY GOODMAN: Brain damage.
DR. ANGELA HEGARTY: Yes.
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A wake-up call
GG: For many people, including myself, the Padilla case was really the ultimate wake-up call to the true character, the actual soul, of the Bush administration. ...
It was certainly one of the many wake-up calls. I find it hard to pick the "ultimate" wake-up call as horror has piled on top of horror for these 7 long years.
If forced to pick, I think the immoral invasion of a country that had never harmed us, and could not do so, was the ultimate wake-up call to the black evil heart of the Bush II administration. I think of the brutal murder of all those innocent civilians. The children. The women.
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An important issue
Glenn,
Thanks for delaying your "vacation" for a bit. This is an excellent post. One of the reasons that I became a daily reader of this blog is that you were following this case. Astonishingly, few people seem upset that Bush has claimed the power of a dictator (even more than that of a king, as you point out). It is a truly frightening power grab that has not received enough attention in this country.
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a national disgrace
This whole sad chapter in American history is one that will live forever as a national disgrace. That our government first imprisoned an american citizen without charges. That it said it had no obligation to give him right to a trial or even representation. That it had the right to imprison him forever based on one person's say so, the presidents. That an appelate court said yes the gov't has the right to imprison an american without ever charging him with a crime. That the American people sat back and allowed all of this to happen, without there being riots in the streets. That so many were comforted that we are just doing this to the "terrorists", and never realizing this could be done to any of us. That so many could not see the danger to their freedoms staring them right in the face. That our country has become so frightened of its own shadow, we would embrace fascism and torture. That is the natinoal disgrace our country will have to live with forever.
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Thanks
Thank you Glenn for interrupting your vacation. This was too important to go unremarked. I don't know how much of Jose Padilla is left. That we will punish a victim of our torture is incomprehensible.
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Fighting terror with terror
Glenn, I'm glad that you (and others like you) keep writing about this, even if it gets repetitive and depressing. The idea that state-sponsored terror is WRONG, no matter what the reasons and justifications for it are, that it's wrong per se and that it should NEVER exist has to be hammered into our collective consciousness so hard that even another 9/11 (God forbid) could not pull it out.
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shocked he was convicted
For me, this case shows something else, too: the various kinds of conspiracy charges developed to combat organized crime and terrorism have already undermined the constitution to an alarming degree. I am frankly shocked that not a single juror saw fit to stand up for justice in this case. The lesson is: no crime is needed to get thrown in prison for 30 years - just talking to the wrong people suffices. And hey, the government can just torture away, you'll still be convicted. This makes me sick.
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The truth will be never be known
Jose Padilla lost the case the minute he was arrested.
When the government prosecutes someone, they never lose-they will manufacture evidence, taint witnesses, alter documents and other sundry things to guarantee a conviction.
The whole case is now history-he will lose his appeal, and languish in prison for the rest of his life. I can guarantee he will probably get 30-45 years hard time, and never catch a break from the courts.
Call me a cynic, but I do know this: the government never loses a major prosecution. Ever. They won't allow the courts to see any evidence of innocence because that's "secret" and not allowed to be viewed by non-cleared personnel.
Even Padilla himself doesn't know half of the "facts" of the case as given by the government. He never had a chance.
A steamroller just did him in.
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Mr. Padilla's Verdict
A while back, I had a heated exchange with my brother-in-law about the many abuses perpetrated by the Bush Administration, and I used the Padilla case as the centerpiece of why what has been happening in this country since September 11, 2001 is a fundamental threat to the liberty of all American citizens. The thrust of my argument was that all human beings, American citizens or no, must have the right to defend themselves in a public court of law, and that those who prosecute must bring forward evidence to establish the guilt of those accused. Protecting that right is one of the fundamental underpinnings of what America stands for in the world community. In order to drive home that point, I had to simplify and personalize the argument for my brother-in-law: what if it were his son who found himself in Guantanemo, cut off from his family, stripped of his RIGHT to legal counsel? If this law protects (?) his son, should that protection not be extended to ALL?
I happened to be in a grocery store when the verdict was announced. Wandering the store, I asked ten people at random, from a 16 year old girl to a 78 year old grandmother, if they knew who Mr. Padilla was. Not one of them knew. After I summarized his situation, nine out of ten focused solely on their satisfaction for his conviction.
To me, the value of what is happening on this blog, and on many others, is to articulate the injustice and to promote its correction as best we all can. I cannot merely read Mr. Greenwald's commentary (brilliant as it is) without extending his message to as many as I can. Long ago, a poet friend of mine described this action as "the spread of the unit": fostering awareness and begging that the truth be dispursed as widely as possible.
The future of America desperately depends on it.